A collection of cases of apoplexy : with an explanatory introduction / by Edward Copeman.

  • Copeman Edward, 1809-1880.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of cases of apoplexy : with an explanatory introduction / by Edward Copeman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    TABLE OF MORTALITY AT DIFFERENT AGES. Age. Cured. Died. Under 20 years .... 2 .... 18 From 20 to 30 .... 12 .... 18 1 to 9 i 4 30 40 .... 6 .... 25 40 50 .... 7 .... 24 50 60 .... 3 .... 22 60 70 .... 13 .... 17 70 80 .... 9 .... 16 80 & upwards 2 .... 3 1 4 Total 54 143 The number of cases occurring at the different ages is nearly the same; but the aged have been more successfully treated; and probably, if I may be allowed the assumption, from the greater caution practised as regards depletory measures. When serious extravasation of blood has taken place, or when apoplexy occurs as the result of organic diseases of the brain, such as tumor, softening, abscess, &c., external signs of fulness are seldom present; indeed we may state that in a great majority of such cases, the symptoms are strongly indi- cative of a prostrated condition of the system—the pulse is slow, sometimes intermitting; it may be either small or full, but its fulness is more like what we might suppose to arise, from the heart making efforts to propel the blood through passive tubes which had lost their natural elasticity for want of nervous influence ; it is what I should rather call a large pulse; the countenance is often pale and covered with cold perspira- tion ; the extremities are cold, the muscular system relaxed ; the breathing laboured, and nervous power generally almost destroyed. I have myself observed, but perhaps it requires further confirmation, that the pupils being at first very much contracted and afterwards as much dilated, is a sign of fatal apoplexy. Contrast this description with the strong, bound-