Volume 1

Glasgow hospital reports / edited for the committee by George S. Middleton [and others].

Date:
1898-1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Glasgow hospital reports / edited for the committee by George S. Middleton [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    two brothers alive and well, and another brother who has been ill for some years, although she cannot tell the nature of his complaint. “ Prior to the commencement of her present illness she seems always to have enjoyed good health, although her bowels have been habitually costive, and her menstruation, which made its appearance at the age of seventeen years and a half, never very regular—six or eight weeks sometimes intervening between the periods. About two years ago she began to complain of headache which was limited to the left side of the head, and which has continued ever since. The pain is spoken of as being of a ‘ beating character.’ It is more or less constantly present, but becomes aggravated at times, especially in the fore- noon. It is particularly severe in the left supraorbital region. Within the last six weeks the headache has been accompanied by giddiness, especially when the pain is severe; so that her gait at these times is unsteady, and she feels as if she is going to fall. “ About seven weeks prior to admission she began to com- plain of a ‘ prickling ’ soreness along the left margin of the tongue, which was increased by eating, and she had great difficulty in pronouncing words. There was also impairment of the sense of taste to a certain extent; for although she could distinguish between sweet things and bitter, etc., food tasted differently from what it had previously done, though in what the difference consisted she could not explain. In a day or two after the tongue became sore, she says she felt a few hard lumps along -its left edge, each being about the size of a pea, and very painful to the touch. They disappeared in about three days. As the symptoms referable to the tongue began to abate, the vision of the left eye became somewhat impaired, and she often fancied that she saw things on the floor which were not present. At first the eyeball was bloodshot to a marked degree, but in a few days the congestion passed off and did not return. At the same time as the eye became affected— i.e. five weeks before admission—the left cheek felt stiff, swollen, and painful, and gradually became paralysed; she observed that she could not close the left eye, and that her mouth was drawn to the right side. The sense of hearing was not affected.