Practical observations on distortions of the spine, chest, and limbs : together with remarks on paralytic and other diseases connected with impaired or defective motion / by William Tilleard Ward.

  • Ward, William Tilleard.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on distortions of the spine, chest, and limbs : together with remarks on paralytic and other diseases connected with impaired or defective motion / by William Tilleard Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    absolutely injurious, be at least of questionable utility; indeed many of those, who have at first advocated their use, have admitted, that in many cases they ought to be suspended or given up, from an apprehension of fatal consequences; in- deed they must in all cases be regarded as totally inadmissible until the plethoric state of the system, which originally gave rise to the complaint, be removed, and under such circumstances only should they be had recourse to. Several cases have been related where the exhibition of strichnine, a re- medy lately more extensively employed, has been attended with fatal results. The manner in which stimulants are supposed to operate in this disorder, is by increasing that energy of the brain which is necessary to the production of muscular action. The stimulus,, however, which appears to me the most safe, the most completely under our control, and the best calculated to effect this object, is that of frequent exercise, excited by or dependant on volition. From the phenomena which the disease pre- sents, it would appear that an interruption takes place between the sensorial and muscular power, between the governing principle and the subor- dinate agent, by which the movements of the body are performed; although the pressure or other cause affecting the brain be removed, and its healthy functions restored, yet the connection