Synopsis of cerebral and spinal seizures of inorganic origin and of paroxysmal form as a class; and of their pathology as involved in the structures and actions of the neck.

  • Hall, Marshall, 1790-1857.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Synopsis of cerebral and spinal seizures of inorganic origin and of paroxysmal form as a class; and of their pathology as involved in the structures and actions of the neck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    391. I commend these views at once to your indulgent candour and consideration. I am persuaded I have taken a real step in the pathology of these dire and Herculean affections. But if I have failed, I have failed in that which the celebrated Esquirol, after a life devoted to the subject, declared to be impossible !—■“ Les symptomes de l’epilepsie sont tellement eoctraordinaires, tellement au dessus de tonte explication physiologique; les causes de cette maladie sont tellement inconnues, que les anciens out cru qu’elle dependait du courroux des dieux*.” In a recent consultation (on October 19, 1851), in a case of epilepsy, one of the first authorities of this metropolis described the malady as a sort of electric shock, as one of the nature and rationale of which we are entirely ignorant, and pre- scribed the—sulphate of zinc ! 392. The great fact is—that trachelismus, a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the neck, is the first, or rather the second, link in the chain of actions which lead to paroxysmal apoplexy or paralysis, or mania, as well as epilepsy and the epileptoid affections. 393. I need not, I think, insist further on this fact, so important in the pathology. And it is precisely the same fact which leads us into the true path of treatment. 394. May a fit of sickness and vomiting, timeously induced, be made to anticipate and supersede, and take the place, as it were, of a fit of epilepsy % How full of the deepest interest is this momentous question! 395. And then there is another question—When ought this emetic to be given 1 396. There are, I believe, two periods when this is proper. The first, is when an attack is imminent, as ascertained by premonitory signs; the second, when, without premonitory signs, we may be anticipating the attacks generally. Les Maladies Mentales, tome i, p. 274.