On the threatenings of apoplexy and paralysis, inorganic epilepsy, spinal syncope, hidden seizures, the resultant mania, etc. / by Marshall Hall.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the threatenings of apoplexy and paralysis, inorganic epilepsy, spinal syncope, hidden seizures, the resultant mania, etc. / by Marshall Hall. 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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    4.— Of Sleep^ and its Trachelismus a?id Phlehismus. 66. There is another topic, which I must briefly notice, in connection with that of trachelismus. It is the condition of the muscles and veins of the neck during Sleep. As the orbicularis contracts on the prin- cipal of tone., and closes the eye-lids, so the muscles of the neck contract and compress the veins of this region —inducing slight turgescence of the countenance, vivid suffusion of the eyes, and a sub-apoplectic state of the cerebrum and medulla oblongata. It is a slight trachelismus, and frequently concurs wdth other causes in inducing the apoplectic and epileptic seizure. 67. For the following interesting observation I am indebted to Dr. W. Tyler Smith ; 68. “ The person I observed kept falling asleep and w'aking every few minutes. In the course of a long ride, I had opportunities of seeing that, when he became unconscious, the external jugulars became full and strongly marked, and that these disappeared on the instant of waking from his brief sleep. There did not seem to be any change in the respiration, or in the position of his body, sufficient to account for the distension of the jugulars.” 69. It w’ould be well if some accurate index and measure of this condition of the muscles and veins of the neck could be discovered. I imagine that a little instrument like that devised by Dr. R. Quain, and ^ c