AFFECTIONS OF THE CAUDA EQUINA.

AFFECTIONS OF THE CAUDA EQUINA.

609 ventilation. Change from an enervating Mediterranean climate to this country is generally necessary and always desirable during the warm weather i...

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609 ventilation. Change from an enervating Mediterranean climate to this country is generally necessary and always desirable during the warm weather in severe or protracted cases, although it may be preferable for certain cases to remain in the Mediterranean during the winter months in order to avoid the cold of this country at that season.

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THE CROONIAN LECTURER AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

the diagnosis of tumour can be definitely or even probablydetermined surgical interference may be successful. Morethan one case is now on record in which a tumour has been removed from this region. The lecture forms an excellent r’ésumé of the symptomatology of this condition, and the two cases related are interesting and illustrative. °

THE QUEEN’S COMMEMORATION

BRISTOL.

IN

BRISTOL is setting a good example in the art of fitly THE Council of the Royal Society has invited Dr. commemorating the notable reign of Her Majesty, At an Sherrington, F.R.S., Holt Professor of Physiology in Uni- influential meeting on Monday, presided over by the Mayor, versity College, Liverpool, to deliver its Croonian Lecture Mr. R. H. Symes, it was proposed, on the motion of Mr. this year. The lecture will be given in April and the subject Joseph Storrs Fry, seconded by Sir Charles D. Cave, as will be the Spinal Cord and Reflex Actions. The official a fitting expression of thankfulness for the national benefits recognition thus extended to Professor Sherrington’s work is accruing from Her Majesty’s reign, and as a memorial of her of a particularly complimentary character inasmuch as it is greatness, her worth, and of the services she has rendered to the custom of the society to invite a foreign savant to the Empire, to establish a convalescent home for the benefit deliver the Croonian Lecture. of the patients of the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and the Bristol General Hospital, at a cost of £50,000, half to be reserved for STIVEN v. WELSFORD. endowment. A committee was appointed to carry out theWITH reference to our article upon this interesting case undertaking, and some substantial sums were announced it has been represented to us that we have done the at the meeting. No purpose could be more in harmony defendant an injustice by making it appear as though he with the genius of the year. A good convalescent home had forced the matter into court and had been vindictive in is now an essential complement of a good hospital, and, his method of defence. We do not think that any passages as Mr. Fry said, relieves its funds. It is an economical in our article bear out such constructions, but we are happy way of treating patients that are advanced in recovery. to say that we had no intention of making either suggestion. Besides, it gives them an immense impulse in the recovery We are informed that Dr. Welsford was from the first willing of hope and health. The suggestion united men of all to refer differences between Dr. Stiven and himself to political and religious parties in Bristol, and we hope ere medical that the issues could be better long to report its brilliant success.

arbitration, feeling

dealt with

by a scientific tribunal. THE INFLUENCE OF SMALL-POX HOSPITALS.

THE current number of Pnblic Health contains an interesting abstract by Dr. Meredith Young on the Local GovernIN a recent number of the Archives de Neurologie there is ment Board (Medical Officers’) Report, 1894-5. Dr. Young, an abstract of an important lecture on this subject by Proin dealing with the question of small-pox, points out that fessor Raymond. The lecture appeared at length in the the thesis of the aerial convection of this disease is Nouvelle Iconographie de la Scclpetriere. It commences with though by the " bulk of authorities" as a settled question regarded a reference to the anatomical relations of the nerves of the there are many still unconvinced, and he draws attention to cauda and to the muscles and sensory areas which are the experience of Hastings in 1894, where the facts observed supplied by them, and two cases are related in which form yet another illustration of the danger of placing these the symptoms briefly were a paralysis, incomplete and It was found in that near to human habitations. limited to certain regions, a similarly circumscribed hospitals instance that out of thirty-six cases which occurred within cutaneous impairment, and interference with micturition 500 yards of the Hastings Small-pox Pavilion the percentage Certain additional phenomena are also and defecation. of small-pox attacks to population varied as follows :— referred to, such as trophic disturbances, sexual impairment, Attacks. modification of the reflexes, and altered electrical reactions. 4’2 per cent. of population. Within 100 yards circle In regard to sensory changes in such cases the pain is usually 100 to 200 yards zone ... 2’7 " " " 200 300 " ... 1’9 " " " " situated in the sacral region, radiating into the lower limbs. 300 400 " . 0-9 " " It is intermittent as a rule, but has not usually the shooting 400 500 0’2 " " " " " character of the pains of tabes. The anaesthesia is constant, Total within 500 yards circle... 133 " " circumscribed, usually symmetrical, and as a rule involves adds that the Dr. diffusion of Young small-pox occurred the vesical and rectal mucous membranes and the perineal from communication of contagion by any and pudendal regions, or it may also affect the lower limbs in apart altogether or as a most persons things, painstaking inquiry different ways. Its distribution in the limbs gives an indication as to the roots which are implicated in the disease. Various forms of paræsthesiæ are also present. The motor EUCAINE AS A LOCAL ANÆSTHETIC. troubles comprise paralysis and atrophy of certain groups of muscles in the lower limbs, the distribution of the EUCAINE, which is, according to Professor Charteris, a is the nerves Incoördination affected. "methyl ester of a benzoylated oxypiperidine, carboogylio paralysis indicating unusual as a symptom, although slight unsteadiness is not acid," possesses some undeniable advantages over cocaine. uncommon. Genito-urinary troubles are always present- It is capable of synthetic manufacture and so is cheaper ; incontinence or retention of urine, and also sexual inand it does not possess the mydriatic effect of cocaine. i.e., The affections of the either’ cauda are Whether, however, it deserves all the encomium lavished competence. equina tumours or inflammation. The latter may be of the sub- upon it in respect to its greater safety appears open to doubt. stance of the conus or nerves or of the meninges, and may Professor Ponchet, in a paper read before the Societe de be either idiopathic or the result of traumatism, and the Therapeutique on Jan. 27th, asserts that eucaine is a powerful treatment to be pursued is either medical or surgical. The cardiac depressant, and in some instances produces sudden medical treatment will be determined by the general con- death without warning. Injection of 2 milligrammes into ditions affecting inflammations of the spinal cord, and if a frog caused slowing and irregular action of the heart,

AFFECTIONS OF THE CAUDA EQUINA.

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