On excessive sensory cortical discharges and their effects : a study of sensory aurae / by A. Hughes Bennett.

  • Bennett, A. Hughes (Alexander Hughes), 1848-1901.
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On excessive sensory cortical discharges and their effects : a study of sensory aurae / by A. Hughes Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    periodicity. That an excessive cortical discharge and its effects should be sudden follows from what has already l»een said concerning the properties of the ganglion cells with regard to force and resistance. When a continuous force over- comes a continuous resistance, the resultingliberationis inter- mittent and paroxysmal in character, owing to well-known physical laws. The same takes place when vital elements come into play, and all exhibitions of nervous energy are of this periodic type. In the normal state every ordinary movement or muscular contraction may be analysed into a series of smaller movements or contractions, the rapid suc- cession and aggregation of which constitute what is ap- parently steady coordinate action. Excessive functional activity, or an exaggeration of healthy processes, and morbid increase of energy, present the same characters, being intermittent in composition and occurring in paroxysmal sequences. For the production of the last the cells become overcharged, and, as a consequence, explode; a period of rest ensues, shorter or longer, according to the amount of excitation, during which fresh accumulation goes on, again to repeat the cycle of events. The period of actual discharge, liberation of force, ami resistance overcome, alternates with the period of rest during which production, accumulation, and storing up goes on. This constitutes an essentially periodic process. The external results, or the symptoms, the exact nature of the paroxysms which are developed, depend on the function of the particular cortical cells involved, and may consist of a great variety of motor, sensory, or intellectual phenomena. They may be produced arti- ficially by experiment, and are caused by disease, as typically seen in epilepsy and epileptiform attacks. Should these abnormal discharges of nervous force be excessive either in degree or duration, and especially the former, exhaustion of the ceil elements results, and tan-