On a remarkable diminution of the medulla oblongata and adjacent portion of the spinal marrow : consequent upon gradual spontaneous luxation of the Processus dentatus, and ankylosis at the upper part of the spine, yet unattended by any sympton of paralysis / by P.D. Handyside.

Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a remarkable diminution of the medulla oblongata and adjacent portion of the spinal marrow : consequent upon gradual spontaneous luxation of the Processus dentatus, and ankylosis at the upper part of the spine, yet unattended by any sympton of paralysis / by P.D. Handyside. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    6/8 (page 4)
    Mr Lawrence, in his very valuable paper on Dislocations of tlie Vertebra),* narrates a case in many respects very similar to that ■fthich I have described. The processus dentatus was so com- pletely dislocated from the atlas and occiput, as to intercept about one-third of the spinal canal, yeb without producing any paralytic affection. Mr Lawrence adduces from ReiFs Archivesf a parallel instance in which the vertebral canal at the foramen magnum was diminished by one-half, and that too without a paralytic symptom. Caries of the atlas and axis, accompanied by gradual spontaneous dislocation of the processus dentatus, is, among other pathogno- monic sins, characterized by the entire absence of paralysis, which, according to Professor Syme, t is a. very constant mark of the existence of this very interesting and important disease. The case which I have here detailed is worthy of notice, as presenting the peculiarity just noticed; while, at the same time, the history, symp- toms, and necroscopic appearances of caries fail to be traced in it. In the museum at Guy's Hospital, London, are some prepara- tions illustrative of ankylosis and exostosis of the cervical ver- tebr£B. But in all of these cases, as well as in many others which*are recorded, paralysis had resulted. Dr Hodgkin, the au- thor of the catalogue of that valuable collection, describes the pre- parations marked Nos. 1011 and 1012, as exhibitmg the processus dentatus so much enlarged as to have occasioned paralysis. In No. 1012 a preparation taken from the body of a patient who had been under the care of Dr Bright, partial paralysis, both of the upper and lower extremities, had been produced by an exostosis arising from the processus dentatus. • London IMedico-Chirurgical Transactions, Vol. xiii. p. 400. ■f- Archiv fiir die Physiologie, Vol. iv. p. 40?. $ Vol. xlv. of this Journal, pp. 8 and 9. EDTNBunGH, 10, Shandwick Place, February 20, 1840. Tr>irv STARK, OLD ASSEMRLY CLOSE. EDINBURGH: VUtNXED BY JOHN SlAKiv,