Pseudo-hypertrophic muscular paralysis : a clinical lecture.

  • Gowers, W. R. (William Richard), 1845-1915.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pseudo-hypertrophic muscular paralysis : a clinical lecture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    . -^^^ ING rrr.lCC-CHiRURCICAL AUiei CLINICAL LECTUEE ON PSEUDO-HYPERTROPHIC MUSCULAR PARALYSIS GrENTLEMEN,—few montlis ago I showed to some of you two children who were sufiering from the remarkable disease commonly known as pseudo-hypertrophic muscular paralysis. Having the opportunity of showing you to- day two other cases of the same disease, I propose to direct your attention to its chief features and clinical history, as exemplified by these four cases and by twenty others which have come, directly or indirectly, \mder my notice. The disease is one of the most interesting, and at the same time most sad, of all those with which we have to deal: interesting on account of its peculiar featui'es and mysterious nature ; sad on account of our powerlessness to influence its course, except in a very slight degree, and on account of the conditions ia which it occm-s. It is a disease of early life and of early grovsrth. Manifesting itself com- monly at the transition from infancy to childhood, it developes with the child's development, grows with liis growth—so that every increase in stature means an increase in weakness, and each year takes him a step further on the road to a helpless infirmity, and in most cases to an early and inevitable death. These facts do not render its study a matter of less importance. Because we can do little by our treatment, it is not the less necessary to be able to recogniiie the disease when it occm-s, and to know the little, and to know how little, a