A dictionary of medical diagnosis : a treatise on the signs and symptoms observed in diseased conditions / by Henry Lawrence McKisack.

  • McKisack, Henry Lawrence.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A dictionary of medical diagnosis : a treatise on the signs and symptoms observed in diseased conditions / by Henry Lawrence McKisack. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    576/604 (page 560)
    WORD-BLINDNESS. Inability to understand the meaning of written or printed words on the part of a subject who was previously familiar with the use of the written language. It is observed in some forms of aphasia. {See Disorders of Speech, p. 375.) WORD-DEAFNESS. One of the evidences of aphasia, the patient being unable to comprehend any spoken or (commonly) written words. Here the memory or conception of the sound now uttered cannot be recalled, as the centre where such ideas are stored, or their path- way to the motor speech centre, is destroyed. (See Disorders of Speech, p. 376.) WORMS, Intestinal. The presence of parasites in the intestines is generally detected by their discovery or that of their ova in the faeces. In this country four varieties are most commonly met with—viz., the common round-worm (Ascaris lumbricoides), the thread-worm (Oxyuris vermicularis), the beef tape-worm (Taenia saginata), and the pork tape-worm (Taenia solium). Other less frequently occurring varieties are : Ankylostomum duodenale, Trichocephalus dispar, and Bothriocephalus latus. The conditions under which these parasites occur, and their distinguishing characteristics, are discussed in the article on the Faeces, p. 140. WRIST-CLONUS. The flexor muscles of the hand are to be stretched by firm pressure on the palm of the hand. So long as pressure is kept up, clonic flexing movements of the hand are seen. This rarely occurs in healthy subjects, but is an evidence of exalted reflex action. (See Reflexes, p. 336.) WRIST-JERK. The hand is flexed and the tendons of the stretched extensor muscles are tapped. In many cases of health, and in conditions where the reflexes are generally increased, the stroke evokes an extending contraction. A similar flexing movement of the hand may be caused by a stroke on the flexor tendons at the wrist, the hand being first fully extended. (See Reflexes, p. 336.)