Syphilis and parasyphilis of the nervous system / by F.W. Mott.

  • Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker), 1853-1926.
Date:
[1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Syphilis and parasyphilis of the nervous system / by F.W. Mott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    euglobulin, from which it cannot be separated by solvents. Concerning the value of this reaction, I will give three striking examples out of many:— (1) I recently saw a woman in one of the London County Asylums with double optic neuritis, vomiting, and headache. I had her trans- ferred to my care at Charing Cross Hospital. Mr. Collins found five diopters of swelling in each disk. The cerebrospinal fluid did not give the Wassermann reaction, but contained abundance of lymphocytes. She was put upon mercurial inunction. The swelling of the disks rapidly subsided, and from being unable to read large print she was able to read small, the headache ceased, and the vomiting no longer occurred. She was subsequently discharged apparently cured. (2) A man was admitted to one of the London asylums ; he improved so much that the medical officers considered it doubtful whether he was a general paralytic. Lumbar puncture was performed, and the fluid was examined by the Wassermann test; it was positive. I expressed the opinion that it was certainly a case of general paralysis. He still continued to improve, and even his discharge was contemplated. I maintained that the test was not likely to be wrong; the next time I visited the asylum my prediction was confirmed. He had had several seizures and within three months he was dead, and examination of the brain left no doubt about the correctness of the diagnosis. (3) A woman, aged 34, w'as admitted to Charing Cross Hospital under my care, said to be suffering from tabes. There were no signs of syphilis on the body. Her youngest child is aged 4. Fifteen months ago she had a seven months’ stillborn infant. Four months ago she suffered with numbness in the legs, of which she took little notice ; then she had double-vision and tingling in the feet and legs. For the past fourteen days she has suffered with a girdle sensation. She now complains of lancinating pains extending from the back down both legs, unsteadiness in gait and station, a feeling of the soles as if walking on cork, unequal pupils which reacted sluggishly to light and to accommoda- tion, pain and cramp in the muscles of the legs, absent knee-jerks, patches of anaesthesia on the legs, and a belt of thoracic anaesthesia with girdle sensation. After inquiring into the history and finding that she had suffered with headache and squint, that the knee-jerks—wdiich were absent on admission—had returned a few days later, I came to the con- clusion that this woman, with a probable duration of infection of less than four years, was suffering really from pseudo-tabes, the result of syphilitic meningitis, especially as she told me that she had suffered