The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2).

  • Jones, I. G. (Ichabod Gibson), 1807-1857.
Date:
1853-54
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    accumulation, the fluid portion of the blood is absorbed after a time, and finally the patient either partially or entirely recovers. Softening of the brain, producing apoplectic symptoms, generally results from chronic disease, and is not to be con- sidered as true apoplexy. The intimate nature or true pathology of apoplexy may be reasonably inferred from the evidences afforded by post mor- tem research with more certainty, perhaps, than that of most other diseases. The most common abnormal lesion which the examination of fatal cases shows to exist in apoplexy, is sanguineous effusion into the ventricles, arachnoid cavity, and the substance of the brain. This, of necessity, must produce pressure upon the brain, in proportion to the extent of the accumulation, and a consequent obliteration of the mental faculties, and loss of voluntary motion. Though the effusion, all other things being equal, must necessarily produce its effects in proportion to its extent and amount, yet the extent of the effects will depend somewhat upon the length of time occupied in the process of accumulation. The more gradual the effusion, the greater will be the toleration, up to a cer- tain point. Thus if the sanguineous effusion is very slow and gradual, the effects will be much less apparent than when the same amount accumulates suddenly. But when the accumu- lation is sufficient to press with considerable force upon the blood vessels of the brain, the symptoms of more serious em- barrassment begin to be developed. The same symptoms will be likely to follow accumulation of blood, whether it is effused, or whether it is merely accumulated in the vessels of the brain, though in the latter case the symptoms may very soon subside, and the patient rapidly recover. But when the blood has actually passed out of the vessels, and is effused either into the substance of the brain, the arachnoid cavity, or the ventricles of the brain, if the patient survive the im- mediate shock, the system may rally, the effusion be grad- ually absorbed, and the patient finally recover, with such embarrassments only remaining as necessarily result from the violence done to the nervous matter of this important viscus.