Otitic cerebellar abscess / by Heinrich Neumann ; translated by Richard Lake.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Otitic cerebellar abscess / by Heinrich Neumann ; translated by Richard Lake. 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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    cranial complications, in most cases in the terminal stage. The nystagmus is a symptom of irritation, which decreases in severity more rapidly than the other symptoms of irritation of the labyrinth (vertigo, subjective aural tinnitus). On destruction of the labyrinth it entirely disappears. The nystagmus seen in association with endocranial complications, as opposed to the labyrinthine form, first appears in the advanced stages of the pathological process. As regards the cases found in literature, in forty-nine cases only are there statements as to the presence or absence of nystagmus. According to Barany, a simul- taneous examination of the labyrinth in relation to the excitability of the vestibular apparatus was carried out only in three cases in our clinic. In these this test showed the presence of labyrinthine suppuration, in that irrigation with cold and hot water had no effect on the existing nystagmus. One of these cases is given in detail. On the whole, in 9 of the cases recorded in literature there was found to be nystagmus towards the normal side ; in 17 nystagmus towards the affected side ; in 14 the direc- tion is not stated ; whilst 9 cases exhibited no nystagmus. As regards the latter, it must be borne in mind that in many cases the nystagmus is noticed only on lateral visual movements, and that all the cases were certainly not examined in this manner, so that in those in which it is stated that nystagmus was not present it might possibly have been overlooked. The same conditions obtain as in labyrinthine vertigo, the adaptation of the organism to the abnormal irritation as obtain elsewhere. Cerebellar patients also very fre- quently soon become inured to the persistent nystagmus, and the subjective accompanying symptoms of the nys-