Cyclopaedia of the Practice of Medicine
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 149 :Author: Br. H. von Ziemssen. Vols. xi. xii. xiii. and xiv.
In the great work edited by Yon Ziemssen, four volumes are devoted to diseases of the nervous system. Of the four two are written by Professor Erb ; the other two are made up of monographs by various authors. The first of these volumes (the eleventh of the Cyclopaedia) is on diseases of the peripheral cerebro-spinal system. It is written by Professor Erb alone. It treats of neuralgias, anaesthesiae, neuroses of special senses, neuroses of motor nerves, and anatomical diseases of peripheral nerves.
Neuralgia is handled with great minuteness; and in the section on treatment some valuable remarks are made. The great worth of electricity, rather as a palliative than as a curative agent, is insisted upon. The galvanic current is found of use more frequently than the faradic current. The cases that specially call for this remedy cannot as yet be stated with pre- cision. Those, however, most likely to be benefited are the so-called idiopathic neuralgiae, and those due to a rheumatic or to a neuritic process.
The various other alterations in sensation are next discussed. Then follows a most readable account of spasms and paralyses. The volume closes with a section on the anatomical diseases of the peripheral nerves?hyperaemia, inflammation, atrophy, and hypertrophy.
The modes of testing sensibility, special and general, and motility are admirable, and will fully repay perusal. The second of these four volumes (xii.) deals with diseases of the brain and its membranes.
The first essay is on Anaemia, Hyperaemia, Haemorrhage, Embolism, and Thrombosis of the Brain, by Nothnagel. It gives a very satisfactory account of the subjects it deals with. The next essay is a most interesting and instructive one by Obernier on Tumours of the Brain. Then follow Heubner on Syphilis of the Brain and Nervous System, and Huguenin on Acute and Chronic Inflammation of the Brain and its Mem- branes,?the latter being an article marked by rare ability both in regard to fulness of matter and lucidity of exposition. The final essay in this volume is by Hitzig. He treats of hyper- trophy and atrophy of the brain; and under this latter title general paralysis of the insane is discussed. The account given of it is a very good one?concise, clear, accurate, and full. The next volume (xiii.), like the eleventh, is written solely by Professor Erb. It comprises diseases of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata. It is characterised throughout by clearness in stating facts and theories, and by caution in discussing tliem. Several diseases that are not yet well known to the mass of British practitioners are described in a very readable way. The account of multiple sclerosis, though lacking the vivacity of Charcot’s description, is perhaps not a whit less pleasant to read, and is, in some respects, more satisfactory. Spasmodic Spinal Paralysis, first fully described by Erb himself in 1875, having been previously indicated by Zuerck and by Charcot, receives copious consideration. ” The disease is clinically characterised by a gradually increasing paresis and paralysis, generally advancing slowly from below upwards, with muscular tension, reflex contractions, and contractures, with strikingly increased reflex actions of tendons, while, at the same time, there is entire, or almost entire, absence of all dis- turbances of sensibility or trophic disturbances, of all vesical or sexual weakness, and of all cerebral disturbances.” Such is the author’s definition. The affection is slow in development, insidious and chronic in course. The anatomical basis is in all probability a symmetrical sclerosis of the lateral columns, especially of their posterior divisions, advancing gradually from below upwards. The diseases of the medulla, too, are exhaus- tively dealt with.
The last of the four volumes (xiv.) consists of articles on Vaso-Motor and Trophic Neuroses, by Eulenburg ; Epilepsy and Eclampsia, by Nothnagel; Tetanus, by Bauer; Catalepsy, Tremor, and Paralysis Agitans, by Eulenburg; Chorea, by Von Ziemssen; Hysteria, by Jolly ; and Disturbances of Speech, by Kussmaul. The last-named essay occupies more than one-third of the whole book, and is one of the most fascinating articles to be found in the work. It gives a masterly account of speech, considered both from a psychological and from a physiological point of view. It will be read with pleasure as well as with profit by all engaged in observing mental phenomena.
Physicians specially interested in neuroses and neuro- pathology have good reason to be thankful for these volumes.
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