On rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862 / by John Hilton; ed. by W.H.A. Jacobson.

  • Hilton, John, 1804-1878.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862 / by John Hilton; ed. by W.H.A. Jacobson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    anchylosis or bony union between tlie atlas' and tbe axis. In this case nothing but complete rest was employed as a remedy; rest was the only element of success in the treat- ment, and I think it is a very striking example of its power to prolong life, by enabling Nature to repair her injuries undisturbed. Case of Diseased Spine, with severe Pain upon the Bach of the Sead; sudden Death of the Patient. I will now direct your attention to another case of diseased cervical vertebrae, which terminated in sudden death. It is that of a little child, five years and five months old, seen by me in 1841. She was a small, delicate, unhealthy girl. She had been accustomed to ride a good deal in the country with her mother in an open carriage, and was thought in that way to have caught a cold in the back of the neck, which became gradually stiff and swollen, accompanied by pains in the head and neck. These pains were believed to be rheumatic, and the treatment employed had reference only to that impression, which was su]3posed to be supported by some pain experienced in the Hmbs, with cramps and stiffness in walking. She frequently suffered from fever and loss of appetite, and had been under medical treatment during many weeks, the symptoms slowly increasing in severity. The mother told me after- wards that she had thought her an obstinate child, and that she sometimes threatened to punish or to shake her well, because she would not take her food. I have no doubt if she had done so she would have killed the child. Upon careful examination, I thought I made out the case to be one of disease between the first and second cervical vertebrae, or thereabouts. I say thereabouts, because the parts were too much swollen and too painful to admit of a more accurate local investigation. There was pain at the back part of the head, in the course of the great occipital nerve ; pain behind the ear, in the course of the great auri- cular, and of the small occipital; pain in the higher part of the neck, on rotation of the vertebrse upon each other; and pain in the same vertebrae, probably the fii-st, second, and third, by pressing the bones upon each other. She had some difficulty in deglutition, and the voice had lately changed its character and become more feeble, indicating