PARALYSIS AFTER FEVERS. To the Editor
"
Indiati Medical Gazette
with a view to being informed, than to give Sir,?It information, that I record the following case ; my not very extensive library not containing any treatise, especially on functional nervous disorders, I have no literature on the subject at hand to refer to. Balloo, a boy 4 years of age, of the dhobi caste, came as an outpatient, complaining of inability to lift either hand to the mouth, when he wished to do so. The father of the boy said, that about a month previously the boy had recovered from a severe attack of small-pox ; during the time he had small-pox the hands seemed powerless, and when it had left him, his arms and shoulders were found paralysed. The child had not been vaccinated. The small-pox had left few if any real pock-marks. The appearances noticeable when he presented himself were a looseness of his scapular attachments to the trunk, the scapulae standing out winglike as it were, flattening of the deltoid, atrophy of his biceps, and the arms so rotated that the little finger was the most anterior part of the hands. The elbow joints had the appearance of being larger than normal The motor power was interand were thrown outwards. fered with, he could not bring the palmar surface of his hand When the biceps acted, which it did very to his mouth. feebly, the dorsum of the hand approximated the mouth, but could not reach it, even when the trunk and head were bent to their utmost. I ordered him an iron tonic mixture, and told the father that the boy would regain the power of his arms. He also had electric currents passed along the muscles, to prevent their atrophy, until the nerve power is restored. I was induced to give this favorable prognosis merely from analogy, I thought that the poison of small-pox niight have a paralytic effect in some cases, as the poison of diphtheria The only differential diagnosis required was from inhas. fantile paralysis, but the boy's age and his evident connection between the fever and the paralysis excluded It. It is about six weeks since he came to hospital, and the treatment has been very beneficial, or rather the vis. viedi' catix natum has been sufficient to restore the use of his left hand and arm, and so improved the right, that he can use it, though the movements are slow and rather weak. The fever poison of small-pox, I would have expected rather to have affected ^the lower limbs than the upper ones, judging from the lumbar pain with which its onset is accompanied, but the lower limbs of this boy were perfectly free from any motor defect. Should any of your readers have met similar cases, it would interest me much to hear of them. is
mere
Yours., T. A t/iraoti,
May 30th, /883.
etc.,
Hume, Surgeon, '"!isoU
'!>.*
oil;
"
Indiati Medical Gazette
with a view to being informed, than to give Sir,?It information, that I record the following case ; my not very extensive library not containing any treatise, especially on functional nervous disorders, I have no literature on the subject at hand to refer to. Balloo, a boy 4 years of age, of the dhobi caste, came as an outpatient, complaining of inability to lift either hand to the mouth, when he wished to do so. The father of the boy said, that about a month previously the boy had recovered from a severe attack of small-pox ; during the time he had small-pox the hands seemed powerless, and when it had left him, his arms and shoulders were found paralysed. The child had not been vaccinated. The small-pox had left few if any real pock-marks. The appearances noticeable when he presented himself were a looseness of his scapular attachments to the trunk, the scapulae standing out winglike as it were, flattening of the deltoid, atrophy of his biceps, and the arms so rotated that the little finger was the most anterior part of the hands. The elbow joints had the appearance of being larger than normal The motor power was interand were thrown outwards. fered with, he could not bring the palmar surface of his hand When the biceps acted, which it did very to his mouth. feebly, the dorsum of the hand approximated the mouth, but could not reach it, even when the trunk and head were bent to their utmost. I ordered him an iron tonic mixture, and told the father that the boy would regain the power of his arms. He also had electric currents passed along the muscles, to prevent their atrophy, until the nerve power is restored. I was induced to give this favorable prognosis merely from analogy, I thought that the poison of small-pox niight have a paralytic effect in some cases, as the poison of diphtheria The only differential diagnosis required was from inhas. fantile paralysis, but the boy's age and his evident connection between the fever and the paralysis excluded It. It is about six weeks since he came to hospital, and the treatment has been very beneficial, or rather the vis. viedi' catix natum has been sufficient to restore the use of his left hand and arm, and so improved the right, that he can use it, though the movements are slow and rather weak. The fever poison of small-pox, I would have expected rather to have affected ^the lower limbs than the upper ones, judging from the lumbar pain with which its onset is accompanied, but the lower limbs of this boy were perfectly free from any motor defect. Should any of your readers have met similar cases, it would interest me much to hear of them. is
mere
Yours., T. A t/iraoti,
May 30th, /883.
etc.,
Hume, Surgeon, '"!isoU
'!>.*
oil;
