History of a case of paraplegia from injury of the spinal chord, causing inertia of the kidneys, and other anomalous symptoms / by John Home Peebles.

Date:
[1834?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of a case of paraplegia from injury of the spinal chord, causing inertia of the kidneys, and other anomalous symptoms / by John Home Peebles. 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.

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    not materially altered by this change, except that plethora was now produced with greater facility and frequency, requir- ing the use of bleeding in shorter periods; and it appears from the journal of the prison, as well as that kept by Dr Montesan- to, that during the two years after the cessation of the fecal vo- miting, there were not fewer than sixty blood-lettings of twelve ounces each at least. It is here observed, that, from the hardness and frequency of the pulse, the fever, the wandering pains in the thorax, and the oppression and shortness of breathing which he suffered from time to time, hydrothorax would in all probability have occurred, had not repeated blood-letting, general and local, and blistering, been resorted^to. It is of importance also to mention, that when the vomiting of fecal matter had become more rare, or when it was supposed to have ceased altogether, and when the symptoms of manifest inflammation of the chest arose, with fever and pains in vari- ous parts of the thorax, some sweating began to appear; an excretion which never happened before, not even in the hot- test months of summer. This sweating, or more frequently a sensible perspiration, was discovered to exist, not only in the superior part of the trunk, arms, and hands, but also on the paralytic limbs, and these parts have in progress of time since become less emaciated. Notwithstanding this circumstance the paralytic condition of the inferior extremities is not chang- ed, since the patient has always still a want of feeling and mo- tion from the waist to the feet; and the organs of generation are comprehended in this space. From the middle of July to the end of August 1831, the general health of our patient was comparatively in the best possible state ; but about the first of September he had renew- ed attacks, and on the 11th of that month it was necessary to use blood-letting, which was repeated twice before the middle of October. Besides these occasional attacks of inflammation of the chest, which required bleeding, he was twice seized with indigestion from eating food which disagreed with his stomach. I he last of these, which occurred at the end of March 1832 continued 15 days, during which time he had sharp and con- stant pains in the stomach and spina dorsalis. His pulse was quick, the fever intense, and there was no appetite. A bleed- ing of twelve ounces was prescribed and again repeated. The pain and fever were mitigated by the 3d of April; but they still continued in a considerable degree, and the patient talked of his approaching end; saying, he felt something rise from the bot- tom of his stomach, which in every attempt to vomit threatened nira with suffocation. Every thing he tried to swallow increas- ed his sufferings; spirits alone in small doses were at this time