On a prolonged first stage of Tabes dorsalis : amaurosis, lightning pains, recurrent herps; no ataxia; absence of patella tenson reflex / by Thomas Buzzard.

  • Buzzard, Thomas.
Date:
[1878?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a prolonged first stage of Tabes dorsalis : amaurosis, lightning pains, recurrent herps; no ataxia; absence of patella tenson reflex / by Thomas Buzzard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    course. There would be a group which arppeared to be going on to maturity, when it suddenly became, as he describes it, stafrnant and abortive. The vesicles would not burst, but would wither up and disappear in a few days, without any scab being formed. At another time, after apparently aborting, or at least taking no action for twelve or twenty-four hours, they would then, as it were, re-develop and go through the ordinary course. It was not till 1863, two years after the attacks of herpes had commenced, that they began to be associated with pains. These were at first confined to the right lower extremity; and attacks had been since occurring, when I saw him, at intervals of a month or so. Their character will be particularly described later on. The account which he gave of the onset of his ocular dis- turbance is curious. It seemed that in October 1862, after a severe attack of diarrhoea, he suddenly found an imperfection of sight in his right eye. In reading he observed that he failed to see the end of the word at which he was looking; next he found that whilst reading the top line of a page he could not see the second or third line without lowering the eye, so that ere long he had to put his finger on a line, drop- ping it as he read, and so spell out the words and lines. This condition, as regards his right eye, stretched over a year. In the autumn following he took a holiday, and amused himself by sketching from nature. He found it necessary to paint by the aid of his left eye, shutting out the right by means of a piece of cardboard suspended from his hat. His health, though then improved, was not up to the old standard, sleep being uncertain and digestion imperfect. In October 1863, exactly one year (almost to a day) after the failure of the right eye, similar symptoms attacked the left. He had been out sketching, the sight of the left eye being perfect, and went home and dined. In the night ho was attacked with diarrhoea, which recurred in the morning. Next day he found that he could not see the ends of words with his left eye, and, as with the right eye, so the sight of the left gradually deteriorated, and was diminishing at the time when he first came to me.