The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, 1845-1916.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    be thickened, soft, and tender. Moreover, there is the evidence of rickets elsewhere, and the evidence of tender leones in all parts. The two diseases may be, as 1 have already said—some writers say often are—associated. The disease may perhaps be confounded with hyper- trophy of the l)rain, which is described a little later; but this condition is so rare and obscure, both in its symptoms and in the morbid changes which produce it, that no definite means of distinguishing it can be given. Prognosis.—A case of ad\anced hydrocephalus lives, at best, a precarious life; l)ut it is certainly instructive to notice how long the less serious cases live. Children thus allected attend at hospitals for a year or two—at any rate, for several months, and then disappear from view; and it is my belief that many of the moderate cases hold their own, and, so to speak, get well. 'I’he pathology of hydrocephalus is a subject of great interest. Space has, unfortunately, prohibited my entering upon it; but putting aside such cases as are due to incurable conditions, such as pressure upon the veins by cerebral tumours, there is no reason why, if hydrocephalus be due to the shutting off of the ventricles from the general sub-arachnoid space, the ventricular cavities should not strike a balance in many cases, as is often seen in hydrocele, for instance, and the equilibrium of secretion be re- stored. Whether this be so or not we cannot tell, but this is certain, that hydrocephalic heads in considerable number are seen in the out-patient room at children’s hospitals; the general health of these children, as a I'ule, is not bad ; the evidences of cerebral trouble are few or none; the enlargement of the head is very slow, and often stationary; the majority are ulti- mately lost sight of, and only the few extreme cases are knovm to die. Even these linger on for a long time, perhaps fairly intelligent, most piobably dull; but in the end intelligence and sight fail, and the child