The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-11-11
EPILEPSY DURABLE.
A New Era in Surgery Which Promises ia
Rid the World of Great Curse.


A New Era in Surgery Which Promises to
Rid the World of Great Curse.
At the meeting of the British Mcdi
cal Association at Brighton, Mr.. Victor
Horsley, F. r. S.. Surgeon to the Ma
tional Hospital for the Paralyzed and
Epileptic, exhibited three patients
treated in that hospital, whose recovery
may be said to mark the commencement
of new era in surgery. They are men
who have been suffering from severe
epileptic fits, and in whom Mr.. Horsely
has opened the skull aud removed dis
eased structure or new growth from the
| brain tself.
In the most recent of these three the
operation was performed on the 18th
of July, and the patient was sufficiently
well to take the journey to Brighton.
The other two cases were operated
upon, one week or two and the other
several weeks earlier; and in none of
the three has there been any symptom
to interfere with the prompt and COM
| plete recovery. So far, also, the men
are cured of their epilepsy; but a con-
siderable time must be permitted to
elapse before any claim for permanence
| Of result can be established. What is
actually proved at present is that it has
| become possible, by the observation of
symptoms, not only to determine the
fact of the existence of some morbid
growth within the skull, but also to de-
termine its precise position with such
accuracy that it can be cut down upon
and removed. 1t is also proved that
considerable portions of brain may be
removed without injury, the functions
to which these portions are subservient
being performed. after awhile, very
possibly, by corresponding parts of the
opposite hemisphere.
In two of MIR. Horsley's patients,
there had been injuries, and one of
them had been previously trephined
for the purpose of elevating portions
of bone which were depressed by frac-
ture of his skull so that in both of
these localization was assisted by man
ifest external indications; but in the
third there was nothing of this kind,
and the point at which the skull should
be opened was determined solely by
the fact that the fits commenced in a
particular group of muscles-those,
namely, which act upon the left thumb.
The physician in charge of the case
was able to say that this manner OF
commencement pointed certainly to
the presence of continuing source of
irritation near the surface of the brain
at definite spot; and, the surgeon
having opened the skull at the point
indicated, a tumor was found imbedded
in the brain substance. and, together
with portion of brain surrounding it,
was removed, so far with absolute ces-
sation of the fits, which were previously
not only very frequent, but, as might
have been expected, were also increas-
ing alike in frequency and in severity,
and were such as to disable the patient
from following any occupation, not to
say that they placed his life in constant
jeopardy from accident. There are
two contingencies in relation to the
cases which render it impossible to
predict with certainty the permanence
of the results obtained, and these are,
first, that the scar which must form in
or upon the brain tissue may possibly
itself become source of irritation in
time; and, secondly, that a second pro-
portion of brain tumors, as of tumors
in other parts of the body, are of a ma
ture to render recurrence possible or
probable.
We have here, then, an illustration
Of the value and usefulness of expert
mentation on living animals. DR..
Hitzig and DR.. Terrier commenced to
experiment upon living animals by ap-
plying the stimulation of weak oalvanic
currents to different portions of the
brain. that the offices of these portions
became known, and then it was found
that the brain surface is largely made
up of what are technically called motor
areas-that is to say, of regions which
excite movements, each in its especial
part of the body. Localization is as
yet only in its infancy, but even now
a skillful experimenter. by stimulating
in succession differentparts ofthe brain,
can cause narcotized and therefore
unconscious animal to perform a con-
siderable variety of actions with perfect
precision, and it has been found, for
example, that portion of the brain
surface which the phrenologist asserted
to be the seat of identity, or aequisitive
ness, or some such rubbish, is in reality
the exciting center of the movements Of
the left thumb. 1t was the application
of this particular piece of knowledge
which enabled the medical staff of the
National Hospital to point out the seal
J of the disease in Mr.. Horsley's thir(
| patient. -Loasdoaa Times.
~