On Railway and Other Injuries of the Nervous System |
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Common terms and phrases
Abercrombie acid affected become body brachial plexus brain bruised cerebral cervical spine cervical vertebrę complained complete concussion condition consequence developed difficulty direct your attention disease distressing dura mater effusion evidence examination after death extended extravasation fall fatal feces feeling foot fracture gait gradually greatly head immediate impaired increased inflammatory action inflammatory softening inflicted injury irritation left arm left leg lesion less ligamentous loss of motor lost membranes months motor power movement muscles neck nerves nervous system numbness occasioned occur Ollivier ordinary pain paralysis paralyzed paraplegia paraplegic pathological patient peculiar period phenomena pia mater pressure progressive railway accidents railway collision recovery remarkable result right arm rigidity secondary sensibility serious severe and direct shock side slight slowly sphincters spinal canal spinal cord spinal meningitis strained structural changes strychnine suffered surgeons surgical symptoms tender tingling treatment twisted University College Hospital urine usually vertebral column violent walk wrench
Popular passages
Page 23 - Sir Astley Cooper, who certainly enjoyed a wider range of experience in surgical practice than has ever before or since fallen to the lot of any one man in this country, said that his experience, extensive as it had been, was only as a bucket of water out of the great ocean of surgical knowledge. In the writings of Sir A. Cooper himself, in those of his predecessors and contemporaries, especially of Boyer, of Sir C. Bell, and, at a later period, of Ollivier and Abercrombie...
Page 91 - ... closely, indeed, as to leave no doubt that the whole train of nervous phenomena arising from shakes and jars of, or blows on, the body, and described as characteristic of so-called " Concussion of the Spine," are in reality due to chronic inflammation of the spinal membranes and cord.
Page 73 - So if the spine is badly jarred, shaken, or concussed by a blow or shock of any kind, communicated to the body, we find that the nervous force is, to a certain extent, shaken out of the man, and that he has in some way lost nervous power. What immediate change, if any, has taken place in the nervous structure to occasion...
Page 22 - It must, however, be obvious to you all, that in no ordinary accident can the shock be so great as in those that occur on railways. The rapidity of the movement, the momentum of the person injured, the suddenness of its arrest, the helplessness of the sufferers, and the natural perturbation of mind that must disturb the bravest, are all circumstances that of a necessity greatly increase the severity of the resulting injury to the nervous system, and that justly cause these cases to be considered...
Page 100 - J have never known ti patient to recover completely and entirely, so as to be in the same state of health that he enjoyed before the accident, in whom the symptoms dependent on chronic inflammation of the cord and its membranes, and on their consecutive structural lesions, had existed for twelve months. Such a patient may undoubtedly considerably improve, but he will never completely lose the traces of the injury.
Page 73 - We do not know how it is that when a magnet is struck a heavy blow with a hammer, the magnetic force is jarred, shaken, or concussed out of the horse-shoe. But we know that it is so, and that the iron has lost its magnetic power. So, if the spine is badly jarred, shaken, or concussed by a blow or shock of any kind communicated to the body, we find that the nervous force is to a certain extent shaken out of the man, and that he has in some wajr lost nerve-power.
Page 22 - ... occur on railways. The rapidity of the movement, the momentum of the person injured, the suddenness of its arrest, the helplessness of the sufferers, and the natural perturbation of mind that must disturb the bravest, are all circumstances that of a necessity greatly increase the severity of the resulting injury to the nervous system, and that justly cause these cases to be considered as somewhat exceptional from ordinary accidents. This has actually led some surgeons to designate that peculiar...
Page 58 - Curtis, and found that his condition had in no way improved; indeed, that in some respects, so far especially as power of movement was concerned, it had progressively become worse. In this case the injury produced by the shock had evidently occasioned mischief within the lower portion of the spinal canal, leading to partial paraplegia. I believe this mischief to have been of a chronic inflammatory nature; the tenderness of the spine, the feeling of distension, the pain in movement, and the habitually...
Page 59 - He complains of loss of memory, so that he is often obliged to break off in the middle of a sentence, not being able to complete it or to recollect what he had commenced saying. His thoughts are confused, and he cannot concentrate his attention beyond a few minutes upon any one subject. If he attempts to read, he is obliged to lay aside the paper or book in a few minutes, as the letters become blurred and confused. If he tries to write, he often misspells the commonest words, but he has no difficulty...
Page 22 - But yet, though the intense shock to the system that results from these accidents naturally and necessarily gives to them a terrible interest and importance, do not for a moment suppose that these injuries are peculiar to and are solely occasioned by accidents that may occur on railways. There never was a greater error.