THEO. S. VERY. 
82 
suggestions which have occurred to me ; but, on the contrary, that my 
remark's may create additional thought and inquiry among those who 
may read them, even as I have studied and endeavored to fully compre¬ 
hend the excellent article before alluded to. 
I regard the pathology of the disease, as given by Prof. Large, as 
being certainly more satisfactory and compatible with its usual symp¬ 
toms than that which traces the cause of those symptoms to inflamma¬ 
tion of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, and am pleased to 
be able to adopt it for that reason, if for no other. The symptoms in 
all the cases I have seen, have not included any signs of inflammation, 
characterized by unusual force or frequency of pulse, of increased tem¬ 
perature, or of positive pain. On the contrary, something has appeared 
to act depressingly on the whole system, so that no function could be 
said to be performed correctly, and no organ entirely free from that in¬ 
fluence, varying, of course, in intensity of effects according to condi¬ 
tions and circumstances. 
When I first became familiar with the disease, my ideas concerning 
some of its symptoms and causes and effects were of the crudest and 
most automatic kind. An animal was found unable to maintain the 
erect position either partially or wholly. Apparently, the difficulty 
resided in the hind limbs, or posterior to the lumbar region, ergo, an 
affection of the spinal cord, or its membranes adjacent and anterior to 
the structures wherein the loss of muscular power appeared to be, as in 
paraplegia ; for which nothing more potent and desirable, on the whole, 
than counter-irritation, in form of mustard and hot water applications, 
could be suggested. For internal remedies, copying after others, of 
course, I used aloes, belladonna, gentian, carbonate of ammonia, etc., 
etc., but I relied on the external applications to help me more than all 
the rest, and had them applied with great care and regularity. There 
was, I believed, a condition of things connected with the dorsal and 
lumbar portions of the cord, which must be relieved in a mechanical 
and positive manner, and this was believed to be the way to do it. If 
conditions were favorable, and the disease did not “creep up ” to the 
• brain, my patients recovered—some of them “after a fashion.” 
I cannot claim to be an observing person in many important things, 
but I had not a long acquaintance with this disease, before becoming 
aware that a good deal had escaped me in comprehending its true char¬ 
acter, and in the recognition of some of its peculiarities. One of the 
first errors I found I had made, consisted in localizing the disease where 
only a part of its effects were shown. 
