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Show 298 or comma-Ls s10)»: mmnms «or me serum. 299 lst. Pain of the head, giddiness, and dimness of sight, nausea and s1ckness, a slow labouring pulse, lowness, and in-. creasing insensibility. t 2d stage, btupefaction, or partial paralysis; loss of volun~ y motlon , apoplectlc stertor 1n the breathing ; involunta- ar I ' c . x ‘ « ' ry evacuations. But we must not forget, that all of these symptoms will sometimes accompany other states of the brain, besides compression from the coagulum or the depressed bone. The purest case of compression w ith which I am acquainted, is that related in the second volume of " The Anatomy of the Human Body," page 300. It proceeded from ruoture of the middle artery of the cerebrum. A In apoplexy we cannot say that the symptoms proceed from compression, when we find it so frequently otherwi se on dissection; nor, in the case of depression of the bone, can we say that the insensibility proceeds from the compression purcly, because there is at the same time concussion and iniury of the brain ; nor from eoagulum betwixt the dura mater and bone, because this also has been the consequence of a sheet; which must affect the functions of the brain, as well as frac- ture the skull. But still, in all these cases, the symp toms mm be complicated with those of compression. ' n .‘LIHOLOGICAL ‘ ‘ 1 -_ ,. . lRI‘tLIl‘ch, EXPLAIA‘ISU THE tellcctual powers, comes insensibility of the body, and a d".minished or total extinction of power in the voluntary muscles. If the bone be depressed, it will be apt to act more par‘ tially; and if pushed deep upon the brain, it will act as a suarp irritating bodyyir show the effect of partial compres- sion by a paralytic affection, whilst the general consequence of diminution of the capacity of the cranium accompanies this paralysis. But it requires a much greater degree of depression of the skull than is generally imagined, to produce the more universal compression of the brain. However produced, the symptoms of compression are not sudden. There is as it were a gradual extinction. There is an increasing oppression of the senses, from which fora time the patient can be reused; an insensibility steals upon the body; the heart is loaded with blood, and it also has a degree of insensibility to its stimulus, which produces the very reverse of inflammation. It is languid, and slow in its action; and as it operates on a full ventricle, the pulse is int], but soft; there is no quickness or jar in the stroke. The respiration has always a consent with the state of the circulation; it is deep and labouring; partaking of the loss of action in the voluntary muscles, the larynx, pharynx, and velum are relaxed; they hang loose on the inhaled air, and produce the stertorons breathinm SYMPTOMS U! L OMBIUIS‘IION. Pena compression, as irom eit'used blood , due-4 not act on the matter of the brain, which is iiicornpress ihlv. but on the ulood within the cranium. It acts by dimini siiinrr the (‘aparity of the vessels of the brain, and consequentlj‘; 13? (li‘ minlshing in a greater or less degree the supply of blood to the brain. Following a diminution of blood, there must be a diminution of sensibility; for the funct ion of the brain. and all depending on its influence, exists only by the conti; nued influence of the blood. Then, with a torpor of the in {NJURIES 0F Till-I SCALI', BONE, AND DURA MATI'IIL i'n-is is not the place for explaining the connections of he integuments, perieranium, bone, and dura mater. \Ve lune now only to observe the efleets of their relations in iniury and disease. A contusion of the scalp, as explained in the introducaion, has a ring of inflammation, with a soft centre, and may be mistaken for a depression of the skull. This requires mly to be pointed out. wom M0927 |
