An introduction to the study of clinical medicine : being a guide to the investigation of disease for the use of students / by Octavius Sturges.

  • Sturges, Octavius, 1833-1894.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of clinical medicine : being a guide to the investigation of disease for the use of students / by Octavius Sturges. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    33/152 (page 21)
    or so indistinctly remembered that it is impossible to characterize them by any set names. In order to avoid being thus misled, it is desirable through- out to require plain answers to plain questions, and not suffer patients to express their symptoms, past or present, by the use of medical phrases. Those seizures, which are commoidy classed to- c]?ara^cto°sof gether under the general name of fits,'' comprehend a number of phenomena, epilepsy, hysteria, syncope, infantile convulsions, 8fc. Sfc.—Whenever in the pa- tient^s narrative the word is made use of, much care is necessary to arrive at some accurate knowledge of the thing signified. In the case of the female, for in- stance, it is often matter of difficulty, and sometimes Hysteria or epilepsy, impossible from the patient^s own account, to distin- guish between hysterical and epileptiform seizures.* We may expect to learn something of the nature of Hemiplegia, those Ms or strokes^' which are associated Avith one or other of the forms of paralysis, from the ac- count rendered of their antecedents and immediate consequences. Of the seizure itself often no reliable * Hysterical women may have epilepsy as well as others, yet the very aspect of these patients may prevent their being credited with the graver disease. It is a valuable aid to find marks of injury upon the patient received in falling, or the tongue deeply bitten. Sometimes a woman will admit the consciousness of pain, or stifling or other sensation during the fit,—an admission fatal to the theory of epilepsy. The antecedents of the fit, its occurring without warning, while the individual was busily engaged, or, more gradually, when unoccupied ; and its consequences, confusion of mind, headache, sleepiness, or none of these, are further circum- stances to help the diagnosis.