Medical and physiological problems, being chiefly researches for correct principles of treatment in disputed points of medical practice / by William Griffin and by Daniel Griffin.
- Date:
- 1845
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical and physiological problems, being chiefly researches for correct principles of treatment in disputed points of medical practice / by William Griffin and by Daniel Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
60/266 (page 54)
![travagant amount. On the following clay, November 21st, his right arm was also paralyzed, the power of moving the fingers alone remaining ; his pulse was 120 ; his skin warm and disposed to per- spire. There was no feverish heat hoivever, no pain, no nausea but his appetite was gone, and his bowels confined. It is unneces- sary for the object of this paper to enter minutely into the detail of a very protracted case; it will be sufficient to mention, that each of the lower extremities became successively paralyzed, that afterwards his neck became affected, and he spoke in hoarse i^iispers, and subsequently complained of giddiness, or reeling in the head, with head-ache. The treatment consisted in successive blisters along the whole course of the spine; moderate purging, and the hydriodate of potass three times in the day. When all feverishness subsided, when the pulse became natural, and his appetite returned, bitters were directed, with a twelfth of a grain of strychnine every sixth hour. Under this treatment the power of tlie lower limbs was gradually restored, and the arms recovered sufficient power to admit of his elevating them a little. The fingers of both hands however are flexed into the palm, and from the weakness of tlie extensor muscles he is unable to extend them, lie is since walking about with his arms in slings, and there seems to be a ju’ogressive, though slow amendment, which leads me to anticipate their eventual recovery. I shall now state another case equally convincing. A gentle- man aged forty years, of spare Iiabit, but hardy constitution, was affected with a severe feverish attack, consequent to getting wet and chilled by a long journey. He had intense head-ache, sick- ness of stomach with distressing retching, and disposition to con- stipation of bowels for several daj'^s. A dozen leeches were ap])lied twice to his head, and bled profusely ; his hair was cut, cold lotions Avere constantly applied to the vertex and forehead, and he Avas repeatedly and freely purged. He never had much heat of skin; the pulse Avas quick, but neither full nor hard; it Avas, in fact rather a Aveak pulse. In a fortnight from the com- mencement of his illness, during the first Aveek of Avhich he had no medical attendance, he Avas evidently better, his pulse sloAver, his tongue a little cleaner, the sickness of stomach less, and his skin quite cool. He still complained hoAvever excessively of his head; said he felt a queer, indescribable feeling, as if it Avas too large for his body; complained of noises; and though the nausea](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21934617_0062.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
