On the clinical significance of double optic neuritis in children and young adults, and on the capacity for recovery from symptoms of tumour of the brain / by C.O. Hawthorne, M.D.

  • Hawthorne, C. O. (Charles Oliver), 1858-1949.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the clinical significance of double optic neuritis in children and young adults, and on the capacity for recovery from symptoms of tumour of the brain / by C.O. Hawthorne, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    has also been pain in the head (frontal); at times he has seemed to be unconscious, and on two occasions has had a “fit,” in which he became “stiff,” but not convulsed, lie is now much better in every respect, and indeed he says he is quite well. The ophthalmoscope shows the addition of a recent papillitis to the atrophic condition formerly noted. Knee-jerks are absent. In January, 1899, the boy is reported to be “ stouter and more cheerful than ever.” The family history shows a twin brother and three younger brothers and sisters alive and well. Father and mother also enjoy good health; no know- ledge of family liability to chest or other disease. This case, like Case 1, shows how liable the symptoms of intracranial disturbance are to return after even a considerable period of quiescence. Every care should therefore be taken to reduce the risk of this possibility by maintenance of the general health and by the use of such agents as cod liver oil, iodide of iron, etc. There is one feature attending the recrudescence of the symptoms here which is very unusual, viz., a second attack of papillitis in discs atrophied as a result of the first attack. Gowers in his work on Medical Ophthalmoscopy writes, “ If a disc has become completely atrophied it is very rarely again the seat of inflammation.” Cases of second attacks of papillitis following complete optic atrophy have, however, been observed by Hughlings Jackson and by Schweinitz. “ When atrophy is partial or absent, in rare cases two attacks of neuritis may occur ” (Gowers). CASE 6. Blindness (post-neuritic optic atrophy) and occasional quasi-epileptic attachs, but otherwise good health, in a girl of 1G years, who two years before was for several months seriously ill with symptoms of active intra- cranial disease. Ada L.,1 set. 1G years; examined on June 20, 1898. She complains of blindness. Patient is a delicate-looking girl.