The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-16 00:00:00

MR. ABERNETHY ON APOPLEXY.

Well, then, again you .have apoplectic cells.—
Here are specimens of plenty of them. Blood-
vessels burst upon the brain ; the blood gets ef-
fused ; it clots, and forms cells in the brain, and
that is called sanguineous apoplexy. Now with
regard to sanguineous apoplexy, Dr. Baillie has
said, you generally see some alteration in the
natural structure of the principal arteries ; that
they are white, in some degree ossified ; and that
in this state they are more liable to burst than in
the healthy state ; that there is a sort of diseased
structure in them, which renders them the more
liable to burst. Well, now, I say, that that's the
morbid action of the blood-vessels ; that it pro-
ceeds from the too forcible action of the blood,
and that therefore all this is likely to be observed
in the principal arteries, where that' go into the
brain. Here are s pecimens of arteries which
have penetrated the substance of the brain, ossi-
fied. This was the brain of a man who had been
long ill, and had had very strong nervous symp-
toms. A surgeon being employed to examine
the brain, he notched his knives, and he had to
go on haggling and scratching through the ossi-
fied arteries which ran through the substance of
the brs;.n. Well, of course the arteries of the
brain are liable to the same sort of disease which
the other arteries of the body are liable to ; and
of course diseased arteries are more liable to
burst by a forciWe action of the blood, than
sound arteries. Sanguineous apoplexy also, is
more common to the old than to the young,
where probably some disease of the arteries has
taken place, owing to the too forcible action of
the blood-vessels. But the young- do likewise
have sanguineous apoplexy, in consequence of
diseased blood, vessels in the brain. I have seen
it many times, but still it is not common. The
young seem to me to be more subject to nervous
apoplexy, than to apoplexia sangutnea.
Now what's to be done in these cases ? 0,
to guard against the forcible action of the heart
and arteries ; that state of irritation which is the
cause of inherent vascular action, must be your
object. You say, however, that a vessel gives
way, and blood is shed; what does it do ? Why
it acts as pressure. It generally falls on so►ne
part of the body; but a very considerable quan-
tity of blood may be shed, and yet the patient
may recover. I may relate the case of a great
effusion of blood where the patient did recover ;
it was the case of Mr. Baddeley, the player.—
He fell down in a fit ; there was a great effusion
of blood, but he recovered, played again on the
stage, and then he died in a second fit of apo-
plexy. I think you may easily know the state of
an individual who is liable to sanguineous apo-
plexy, if you will be observant. To convey to
you the state of my mind on this subject, I will
tell you the case of an old man with whom I was
acquainted, who could get no better doctor to
attend him than myself; he could not afford to
give fees. He was a man of a vigorous consti-
tution ; he lived nearly to the age of seventy,
without having had the slightest illness. He
then had occasionally a fit of the gout, and sub-
sequently he had a slight attack of apoplexy.—
The first fit he had affected his speech, and left
him in a state unable to articulate. After some
years he had another fit, and this affected one
side of his face, but not more. Then again he
had a third fit, which left him completely with-
out any motion in one side of the body. It was
one of the larger vessels that had burst. He
was a man of great vigour, both of body and
mind, but when I first knew him it was just as
he was recovering from his third fit. He used
sometimes to forget all about every thing that
had transpired, and was quite unconscious of all
around him. I admonished him about his diet,
aid about keeping his bowels regular (laughter)
and I made him an issue in the neck, and his
recovery was rapid beyond belief. He soon had
all his wits about him ; he became able to go
forth and walk in his garden, to recount again
with accuracy all the adventures and incidents
of his past life, and he was very comfortable.—
As long as I knew him he had a fit of
gout in the winter, and every year, in the sum-
mer, he had a violent throbbing in the vessels of
his head ; but he kept his bowels open, and went
on tolerably comfortable for five or six years.—
But I remember one summer time, for he lived
in the country, on going into the house, I saw
that he looked a little confused, and his wife said
to me, I don't know what's the matter with him
—I think it may be his stomach. I saw the
temporal artery beating violently ; I said, bring
me a basin, and on puncturing the temporal ar-
tery, I got about fourteen ounces of blood from
it, and closed the wound. Then I said to him,
well, Sir, how do find yourself now ? says he, as
well as ever I found myself in my life. He got
up, threw himself down into his chair with a
thump on his bottom ; now, said he, before you
took away that blood I was obliged to sit down
very cautiously, otherwise it would have jarred
my head, but now you see what I can do. I say
I think you will have forewarnings enough if
you are observant. Coughing hurts the head
most excessively where there is a tendency to
inflammatory action, and the throbbing of the
vessels seems to cause them all to go into a sort
of sanguineous apoplexy.—Lancet of Saturday.

CURIOSITIES Or KEW.—At Kew there is
neither doctor, lawyer, nor barber ; the postmas-
ter, it is said, can neither read nor write ; and it is
a Vicarage without a Vicar, he having made him-
self conspicuous at Thurtell's trial, and has ever
since been absent. But there is no lack of Ser-
mons ; for one of the innkeepers, bearing that
name, and his brother, a butcher, have each a
large family. The toll on the bridge is enor-
mous, and is taken every time you pass or repass.
If you want a post-chaise, you must take it either
from Brentford, and the Coils will cost four shil-
lings ; or from Richmond, which is two miles off'.
A poor ragged urchin was tried (at the last
Westmoreland Sessions) for stealing an old
jacket from a lime-kiln ; proof " was strong as
holy writ," the Chairman summed up with clear-
ness and precision, and the wisdom of the yeo-
manry was now to he condensed. After a long
deliberation on this knotty point, they turned
round—" Gentlemen, have you agreed upon
your verdict ?" when the Foreman peeped cun-
ningly from beneath a shaggy front, with about
as much intelligence in it as that contained in
the face of an ourang-outang, and said, " not
guilty ; but he ought to be severely reprimanded
for stealing it."

Married, on the 30th nit. at Whitford, Mr.
James Evans, of Parcival Lodge, a merry and in-
defatigable mender of soles, vulgarly called a cob-
bler, in his 45th year, and with a legacy of
three children left by his former wife, to Miss
Phcebe Hughes, of Pistill, in the county of
Carnarvon, a cherry-checked young lady of 21.
The Lodge (vulgo a bulk) in which this hard-
working man is to labour in his vocation, is
about six feet square, and just high enough to
allow of his standing erect within its confines
with his hat off.