On spasm, languor, palsy, and other disorders, termed nervous, of the muscular system / by James Arthur Wilson.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On spasm, languor, palsy, and other disorders, termed nervous, of the muscular system / by James Arthur Wilson. 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.

    87/228 (page 73)
    In Buenos Ayres, of whicli the name implies the healthiness of its locality, and generally along the course of the Plate River, tetanus, both traumatic and idiopathic, is a common disorder. As the Mai di siete dias, or Trismus nascentium, it is very fatal to the infant population of this district of the South American continent. The liability of individuals to attacks of this disorder ranges wnth a great variety of circum- stances which relate to the general health and condition of the body ; but there is no definite law, under which, a sufficient cause existing, tetanic symptoms may be expected necessarily to follow. A naval officer, rather advanced in life, but in good general health, received a blow by which the ossa nasi were displaced, and in part crushed. Tetanus of the most severe kind followed the injury; the opisthotonos was complete, and the tongue was frequently thrust forward and bitten by the spasm of the maxillary muscles. He recovered after a protracted illness of nearly three weeks, under the care of Mr. Rouse, of Walham Green, who gave to the case his closest attention, and who believes that the cure was effected principally by the adminis - tration, in repeated doses, of the croton oil. Nearly at the same time, a gentleman, about sixty years of age, of impaired constitution, and habits by no means regular or healthy, fell under the care of Mr. Rouse, for a ragged lacerated wound of the wrist, received from the bite of a wolf in the menagerie of the Zoological Gardens; but on this very likely injury, no tetanic or other bad symptoms super- vened.