Three cases of nervous disease / by T.K. Monro, M.A., M.D., Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

  • Monro, Thomas Kirkpatrick, 1865-
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Three cases of nervous disease / by T.K. Monro, M.A., M.D., Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    he became giddy after walking a short distance, and had to stop or hold on to some support. Patient seems to have been first conscious of his illness one day in school, when he was seized with shivering, which was followed by loss of feeling in the feet and legs. The disorder in the lower limbs gradually increased, so that he staggered when he walked, and sometimes fell. He was in the Victoria Infirmary for some weeks in 1899. He has had no pain or sickness, and there is little or no loss of control over the bladder and rectum. The bowels tend to be relaxed. The following data were obtained after his admission to the Poyal Infirmary. Patient’s principal complaint is of weakness in the legs and feet, and indeed of weakness all over, but there is no localised paresis of muscles. There is no tonic or clonic spasm, and no tendency in walking to lift the feet unduly high. There is only a little tendency to drag the right foot. The difficulty with the legs is due to incoordination, which is such that he cannot stand with his feet together, and requires, when walking, to keep the feet far apart. The unsteadiness on standing is not much increased on closing the eyes. The knee jerks are greatly exaggerated, but no ankle clonus is obtained. The cremasteric, abdominal, and epigastric refiexes are dimin- ished. The plantar reflexes are not obviously disordered, but are difficult to investigate on account of patient’s sensitiveness to tickling. The different forms of sensation in the lower limbs (touch, pain, temperature, posture, common muscular sense) are all normal, and there is no delay in the conduction of tactile impulses. The wpptr limbs are unaffected. The muscular weakness is most manifest in the trunk, being shown by the inability to sit upright for any length of time, but it can also be recognised in a slight degree in flexion of the ankles. The extensor muscles at the hip and knee retain great power, as is shown by the little assistance required to enable patient to step on to a bench. Both in sitting and on standing there is marked kyphosis, the head and shoulders being thrown far forwards, as if to counteract the tendency of the trunk to fall backwards. The extensor muscles of the