Observations on general paralysis of the insane and on the morbid changes found on post-mortem examination of the spinal cord / by Robt. Boyd.

  • Boyd, Robert, 1808-1883.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on general paralysis of the insane and on the morbid changes found on post-mortem examination of the spinal cord / by Robt. Boyd. 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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    in decennial periods, showing the date of death, duration, No. of Case, symptoms on admission, cause, summary of treatment, assigned cause of death, 'post-mortem appearances, including five measurements of skull, state of cerebral mem- branes of each cerebral hemisphere, of cerebellum, of medulla oblongata, and weight of each; condition and weight of spinal cord. Condition and weight of thoracic organs, lungs, and heart. State and weight of the abdominal organs. Weight and length of the body. These tables have been submitted to the printer, who found that they could not be put in a convenient form for the pages of this Journal, and so they have been omitted. If time had permitted some of the earlier cases in the tables, which are of interest, and are pretty fully recorded, might have been added to this paper. The summary of the results are, shortly, as follows:—Under 30 years, 4 cases, the youngest 26, one single and three married; average duration of illness 15 months. The form of the disorder in 2 was mania, in both the ideas were exalted; dementia in 2, and the ideas obscured or lost. Cause assigned—intemperance in 1, cerebral disease in 2, and spinal in 1. Treatment: counter irritants, blisters, moxa and seton in three, bichloride of mercury in two, strychnine in one, cod liver oil for restoration of general health in one. Cause of death, softening of brain and spinal cord, and pulmonary tubercles in 1, fluid in spinal cord in 2, with pneumonia in 1 and pleuro-pneumonia in the other, fluid in the cerebral ventricles, bronchitis and dysentery in 1. Head: circumference 2If, antero-posterior from root of nose to occipital protuberance 13, and transverse from one external auditory foramen over vertex to the other 13f ins. Cerebrum: opacity of arachnoid membrane in two and 8 ozs. of fluid in one. There was congestion of cerebral vessels in one, softening in cerebrum in one, excess of fluid in ventricles in one; brain appeared natural in one ; the average weight of right hemisphere 18*4; in one case it was4£ ounces lighter than left; average weight of left hemisphere 19*4; cerebellum large in one case; average weight of encephalon 46'6 ounces. There was an unusual quantity of fluid in the spinal canal in two cases; in 1 there was congestion of blood, and in 1 soft- ening of the spinal cord, average weight of which was If ounce. There was congestion of blood in right lung in 2, bronchitis in 1, and plem’o-pneumonia in 1, average weight 33-5; pleuro- pneumonia of left lung in 2, bronchitis in 1, and tubercles in 1, average weight 26f ounces; heart natural, average weight