Comments on convulsive diseases / by Charles Bland Radcliffe.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland, 1822-1889.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Comments on convulsive diseases / by Charles Bland Radcliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    independent; and thus there is evidence of the existence of general as well as partial convulsive phenomena when the con- gestion makes its first appearance. And further, the sequel of the fit agrees with the commencement, for, on tracing the histoiy, we find that the perfect paroxysm ceases abruptly when the con- gestion is at its height. Every way, therefore, this theory meets with contradiction, and if it be not discarded, we are compelled to admit that the fit begins before there is any occasion for it, and ceases at the very time the occasion is most pressing. What the effect of the congestion is, it is not our province to inquire ; but it may be suggested that it is more in accordance with known physiological results to suppose it to be the symptom which mostly distinguishes epilepsy from tetanus, hydrophobia, and other convulsive maladies—namely, coma. What is its cause?—is a question still further trenching upon our limits, but one which from its own special interest, and from an opinion lately expressed in veiy high quarters, may excuse a passing notice. We venture, then, to doubt that this congestion is entirely due to spasm in certain cervical muscles. We grant this to be an important cause, but, at the same time, we are disposed to ask whether some share is not due to asphyxia, the approach of which was indicated before the fit by the tendency to sighing, and afterwards by the most obvious and unequi- vocal signs ? At any rate we know that there is a frightful engorgement of the cranial and cervical veins, whenever the breathing is seriously and suddenly obstructed, and we have yet to learn that contraction in the cervical muscles could in itself produce such marked results, independently of any asphyxial impediment of a more recondite character. But for the present we must be content to leave in abeyance the cause as well as the effects of this particular congestion; and to rest satisfied with the negative information that it is not essential to the convulsion of epilepsy. In the third and last place, a review of the history of epilepsy enables us to understand that the convulsion is not connected with an increased supply of nervous influence. Judging from the state of the circulation, and from the appearance of the face (which is a proper index of the state of things within the head), as well as from the loss of volition, consciousness, and sensi- bility, the brain is far less active than it ought to be. Judging also from the appearances presented after death, we are led to the same conclusion. In early cases, and especially where epilepsy is associated with madness, the traces of active mischief c