On the threatening of apoplexy and paralysis : inorganic epilepsy; spinal syncope; hidden seizures; the resultant mania ... / by Marshall Hall.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the threatening of apoplexy and paralysis : inorganic epilepsy; spinal syncope; hidden seizures; the resultant mania ... / by Marshall Hall. 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.

    106/114 (page 88)
    appearances found on a post-mortem examination are apt to be viewed as the disease or as the cause of the disease. They are, in reality, its Effects. Fulness of the veins and of the intervening blood-channels placed between these and the arteries, red points, or points of ecchymosis, the effusion of a clot of blood, the conse- quent softening, the eflfusion of serum, the presence of fibrine in the arteries, are all the effects of repeated congestion,—the effects and not the causes of the original malady, though the causes, in their turn, of subsequent symptoms. Of these symptoms, I may observe that the local softening is the cause of partial paralysis, whilst the general effiision of serum is frequently the cause of amentia and of general paralysis. The effusion of serum is seen in the ventricles and under the arachnoid of the surface, and at the base of the brain. In some instances the arachnoid is raised by the serum into the form of a vesicle. In others, the plexus choroides is affected in a similar manner, and a vesicle or cyst is seen to occupy one part of it. These views, in regard to the morbid anatomy of paroxysmal diseases of the cerebral and spinal systems, are of the utmost mo- ment. We have too long been in the habit of concluding that such morbid anatomy is the disease; and in this manner even the most positive department of medicine has led us into error. These very appearances must be interpreted, and that—by {^ephysiology, It will be interesting to ascertain whether there be any difference between the post-mortem appearances in paroxysmal apoplexy and epilepsy. I believe there is none,—a further proof of the nature and identity of the causes and rationale of these diseases. Note to § 188.—It becomes a most interesting question—Wliat are the precise conditions of the arteries and veins after repeated paroxysmal seizures ? I imagine the deposit of fibrine, frequently found in the arteries, not unfrequently the effect, rather than the cause, of softening of the brain, and perhaps of other tissues, organs orliuibs; and even, in some cases, of gangrene.