Epilepsy : its symptoms, treatment, and relation to other chronic convulsive diseases / by J. Russell Reynolds.

  • Reynolds J. Russell (John Russell), Sir, 1828-1896.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epilepsy : its symptoms, treatment, and relation to other chronic convulsive diseases / by J. Russell Reynolds. 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.

    55/434 (page 19)
    storting from the skin of the neck or from other parts of the body, are as certainly related to the muscles whose contraction constitutes a com'idsion as are any physical or physiological efiects that have been hitherto described.* In this altered central nutrition, therefore, we recognise the peculiar organic condition upon which convulsion depends; and we see, further, that it may be immediately produced by an impression from without. The evidence on the latter point is derived partly from experimental inquiry and partly from clinical observation. Experiment has shown that the primary fact in convulsions is a pecidiar condition of some portion of the nervous centres, which may be iaduced artificially ;t and clinical observation has shown that convulsions may arise from eccentric irritation, and be cured by the removal of the latter. + In such circumstances, therefore, the only conclusion we are warranted in forming is that the organic condition of convulsions was the direct result of the irritation. There is no further dificulty in accounting for the operation of eccentric causes ; for, if an irritation is capable of originating convulsive conditions without pre-existing proclivity to their occurrence, a fortiori, is it capable of so doing when that proclivity exists. The mode in which prolonged irritation operates is, although explicable upon the foregoing principles, farther elucidated by other considerations. A certain degree of stimulation is necessary to produce a certain motor effect. This is to be observed in regard of all reflex operations, from the contraction of the iris in proportion to the amount of light, to the con- traction of the muscles of the leg in proportion to the irritation of the skin, in paraplegia. But further, certain reflex actions in health appear to be occasioned only after, not the increase in amoimt of intensity of the impressing cause, but after prolon- gation or repetition of that cause ; for example, respiratory movements, uterine contractions, and emissio seminis. And again, the experiments of M. BroAvn-Sequard show that time is required for the establishment of the convulsive conditions even • Researches of M. Brown-Scquard on Epilepsy, t Brown-.Sfiquard's '' Researches on E])ilepsy, p. 4. X Portal, TraitC de rEnilepsic, pp. 158 and 210. c 2