On amaurosis, accompanied by pains in the head, two years' duration : convulsions, three months : examination p.-m., cyst in the cerebellum / by James Reid.

  • Reid, James, 1803-1854.
Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On amaurosis, accompanied by pains in the head, two years' duration : convulsions, three months : examination p.-m., cyst in the cerebellum / by James Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    correctly to the region of the disease was the severe occipital pain; hut it would not be safe to depend on such evidence. More important than the locality of the disease was the question, of what was its nature ? About this there was greater obscurity, the relation between the disease and its symptoms affording no evidence upon which to form a con- clusion. A conjecture was all that could be made; and, considering the age and general appearance of the jm- tient, I surmised, from the comparative frequency of the disease, that tubercle might exist in the brain: the result proved the conjecture wrong. It is in- teresting, however, to observe that Abercrombie mentions a disease he met with, and regai-ded as nearly analogous to tuberculous disease, which he de- scribes as cysts containing albuminous matter or fluid, in a pure state: iu some cases (even of long standing) the fluid was found serous. He cites four cases,* one of which—a woman, aged 50—re- sembled the present case as regards some of the symptoms, its duration, and the position of the cyst I am sorry that I could not examine the fluid contained in the cyst, owing to its escape; for the presence of albumen would, I think, have left no doubt of the identity of the present disease with that * Abercrombie on Diseases of the Brain, 4th edit. p. 175, Cases 90, 91, and 92. mentioned by Abercrombie.. It is an interesting consideration how far these 9 formations are simple cysts, having ■ their structure and contents modified by the organ iu or near which they are ■ developed, or by a strumous diathesis. ^ The existence of tubercle is not men- ■ tioned in any of the cases refeiTed to above. I regret that, in the present S case, I was prevented making a fui’ther 9 examination, which might have cleared 9 up this point. The soft vascular ap- pearance of the interior of the cyst ' closely resembled that observed in the sacs surrounding tuberculous matter which is undergoing softening in other parts of the body. I was forcibly re- ■ minded of this comparison a short time afterwards, when examining a tubercu- lous tumour removed from the back of fl a girl. I Briefly, then, to review the symptoms I in connection with the condition of the I parts after death, it may be said that ij the afiection of vision, with the head- .fi ache, probably indicated the first de- 9 velopment of the disease : the pain in fl the forehead, followed by discharge of matter from the nose, was an. indepen- dent disorder, originating in inflamma- : tion of the frontal or other sinuses, from cold: the occuiTences of convulsions and obstinate vomiting were probably owing to the in-itation from softening taking place around the cyst, and the effusion of fluid into the ventricles.