97 



When Dr. Dimdas published this curious case, the patient was 

 living and improving ; so we do not know what was the altera- 

 tion existing in the spinal cord. 



H. Ley, in a letter to Sir Charles Bell, relates the following 

 case :f 



Mrs. W., after a profuse hemorrhage, became paralytic. Upon 

 one side of the body there was a loss of sensibility, without, how- 

 ever, any corresponding diminution of power in the muscles of 

 volition. The breast, too, upon that side, partook of the insen- 

 sibility, although -the secretion of milk was as copious as in the 

 other. She could see the child sucking and swallowing, but she 

 had no consciousness, from feeling, that the child was so occu- 

 pied. 



Upon the opposite side of the body there was defective power 

 of motion, without, however, any diminution of sensibility. The 

 arm was incapable of supporting the child ; the hand was power- 

 less in its grasp ; and the leg was moved with difficulty, and with 

 the ordinary rotatory movement of a paralytic patient ; but the 

 power of sensation was so far from being impaired that she con- 

 stantly complained of an uncomfortable sense of heat, a painful 

 tingling, and more than the usual degree of uneasiness from 

 pressure, or other modes of slight mechanical violence. 



She again proved pregnant. Her delivery was easy : but after 

 about ten days she complained of numbness on both sides. 

 Her articulation was indistinct ; she became more and more in- 

 sensible, and sank, completely comatose. 



No positive disorganization of the brain could be detected. 

 The ventricles, however, contained more than usual serum ; and 

 there were found thickening and increased vascularity of the 

 membranes, with moderately firm adhesion in some parts ; in 

 others, an apparently gelatinous, transparent and colorless de- 

 posit interposed between them. 



Unfortunately, no examination of the spinal cord was made. 



In this case there was very likely, as in my experiments, an 

 increase in the temperature of the side paralyzed of motion. The 

 writer merely says that the patient was constantly complaining 

 of an uncomfortable sense of heat. There was, as in my animals, 

 an evident increase in sensibility on that side. 



fThe nervous system of the human body. By Ch. Bell. 3d ed. London, 

 1844, p. 245. 



