KERVOUS AFFECTION CURED BY FRESSING THE CAROTIDS. QAK 



VI. 



On a Case of nervous Affection cured by Pressure of the 

 Carotids ; with some physiological Remarks. By C. II. 

 Parry, M. D. F.R.S.* 



OBSERVING that the Royal Society, of which I have Laws of animal 

 the honour to be a member, occasionally receives commu. !' fe the most 

 nications illustrative of the laws of animal life, which are physics, 

 indeed the most important branch of physics, I take (he li- 

 berty of calling their attention io a case, confirming a prin- 

 ciple which I long ago published, and which I believe had 

 never till then been remarked by pathologists. 



About the year 1786, I began to attend a young lady, Nervous affec- 

 ■who laboured under repeated and violent attacks, either of fions suspended 

 head-ach, vertigo, mania, dyspncea, convulsions, or other t ^ e carotJcTar-^ 

 symptoms, usually denominated nervous. This case I de- ^in- 

 scribed at large to the Medical Society of London, who 

 published it in their Memoirs, in the year 1788. Long 

 meditation on the circumstances of the case led me to con- 

 clude, that all the symptoms arose from a violent impulse 

 of blood into the vessels of the brain ; whence I inferred, 

 that as the chief canals conveying this blood were the carotid 

 arteries, it might perhaps be possible to intercept a consider- 

 able part of it so impelled, and thus remove those symptoms, 

 which were the supposed effect of that inordinate influx. 

 "With this view, I compressed with my thumb one or both 

 carotids, and uniformly found all the symptoms removed 

 by that process. Those circumstances of rapidity or inten- 

 sity of thought, which constituted delirium, immediately 

 ceased, and gave plaice to other trains of a healthy kind; 

 head-ach and vertigo were removed, and a stop was put to 

 convulsions, which the united strength of three or four at- 

 tendants had before been insufficient to counteract. 



That this extraordinary effect was not that of mere pres- 

 sure, operating as a sort of counteracting stimulus, was 

 evident: for the salutary effect was exactly proportioned to 

 the actual pressure of the carotid itself, and did not take 

 place at all, if, in consequence of a wrong direction, either 



* Phil. Trans, for 1811, p. 89. 



io 



