Cyclopaedia of the Diseases of Children, Medical and Surgical Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...and of all other index of hereditary syphilis, the perfect health of the child, and the rarity of specific hemiplegia in the new-born, left us in doubt. Hesitation disappeared in part with the effect of treatment, and totally with undeniably syphilitic cutaneous lesions. Dr. Marfau speaks of an arterial lesion, a partial obliteration, as the only explanation of the symptoms. Dr. J. Hughlings Jackson, in his pamphlet on Nervous Diseases in Inherited Syphilis, gives a case of a girl of ten years under his care with hemiplegia of the left side. The paralysis of the arm was complete, the leg was so weak that the child could not make an approach to standing, and the face deviated to the right. The signs of congenital syphilis were satisfactory. Two years before, she was said to have had St. Vitus s dance. The mother was quite positive that the movements affected only the left, the subsequently paralyzed, side. On getting out of bed one morning nearly two years later, she fell, and could not stand when raised. She was put to bed again, and quickly afterwards she screamed and went into a fit. She foamed at the mouth and her mouth was bloody, and the fit was followed by the hemiplegia already described. This case is particularly interesting because of the preceding chorea A few other cases have been reported in which chorea has occurred in syphilitic children, but the relationship of cause and effect cannot be considered established. Paraplegia depending upon inherited syphilis is rare, but differs in no essential particular from the paraplegia attending acquired syphilis. The paralysis may be the result of spinal lesions that manifest themselves externally and that affect the cord only secondarily, or of lesions that...