Observations on distortions of the spine : with a few remarks on deformities of the legs / by Lionel J. Beale.

  • Beale, Lionel J.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on distortions of the spine : with a few remarks on deformities of the legs / by Lionel J. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    SPINAL IRRITATION. suspicion of the real nature of the disorder, and various kinds of treatment have been adopted, often unnecessary, and generally inadequate to the removal of the complaint, the one symptom characteristic of this disease being overlooked, viz. tenderness on pressure in some part or parts of the spinal column. In slight cases pressure can be borne without any great suffering, in others the tenderness is so great that, in running the finger along the spine, the in- stant the irritable spot is arrived at the patient starts, and a degree of anguish is occasioned so exquisite and excruciating as to produce the most violent spasms, which either go off gradually in repeated faintings, or subside into periodical and less painful dartings along the nerves, running from the part through all their different ramifications.—fVhatton. This disease occurs in every region of the spine ; it exists sometimes in different parts at the same time, and occasionally in the whole column. When the upper cervical nerves are affected, the seat of pain is in the back part and sides of the head, the muscles of the face and neck are stiff, and there is difficulty in moving the jaw. When the seat of the irritation is the lower cervical region, we find darting pains and cramps in the course of the axillary and brachial nerves, in the upper and fore-arm, the muscles about the shoulder-joint and those of the upper and lateral parts of the chest: the breasts are sometimes hard and painful, there is a feeling of de-