L 59 ] 



VIT. Account of an extensive Organic Lesion of the. 

 Brain, thoracic and abdomiiial Viscera, nnaccojnpanied 

 ly the Syntptvvis usually olserved in similar Aff'ections, 

 ^7/ John Taumton, Escj. Ledwer on Analomy, Surgeon 

 to the Cily and Finslury Dispcmaria^, and to the City 

 Iruss Society, ^c. 



To Mr, Tilloch. 



Sir, In the course of my various communications to your 

 Journal, I have more than once had occasion to describe 

 casts of injuries to vital parts, which are generally suj.v- 

 posed to produce a suspension if not a total deprivation uf 

 the reasoning faculties *. 



In detaiUnfi; the remarkable appearances I am about to 

 lay before tlie public, it is not my ^vish to be regarded as 

 espousing a doctrine contrary to the generally received opi- 

 nions respecting the connexion that subsists between the 

 oriranic structure and intellectual faculties of mankind : — 

 I am anxious, however, that the anomalies which daily fall 

 under the observation of medical practitioners may excite 

 them to further inquiries. It has been my lot to witness cases 

 in which the bones of the cranium havelicen sodemolislied, 

 that large portions of the brain escaped from the wound; 

 and on other occasions besides the one I am about to de- 

 tail, 1 have found tumours of an inch and upwards in di- 

 ameter, formed on the surface and substance of that viscus, 

 and yet no symptoms of mental derangement, stupor, or 

 even loss of sight, hearing, &c., supervened. (On the 

 other hand, I am free to aduiit, that 1 have seen lesions of 

 this dcb'cription, nay even the most trifling depressious of 

 the skull, producing all the disagreeable consequences which 

 we are taught to expect from injuries of the head. May 

 there not be sonie chasm in the theory of physiologists oji 

 this point, wliich is re«erved to future observers" to frli 

 wp ? 



In November last I was called to a M. De la Roche, a 

 foreigner, who described his age as 67. He detailed the 

 circumstances of his case, with a firmness and precision, 

 which perhaps no patient, labouring under such a compli- 

 cation of disorders, ever before evinced. On examination 

 I found a fistulous sinus in the i>lutii muscles, which h^ 

 informed me had existed for many years : he had long 

 complained of great pain in thp left -eavity of the thorax, 



* Sec Philosophlciil Magazine, vol. xxix. p. 169,. and vol. xxx. p. S63. 



ofterx 



