At the expiration of a week from the time of the operation, he appeared again; and he could then place his hand behind his head and also on the opposite shoulder. “With the exception of a slight stiffness, he considered his limb quite well.”
Yet two other cases from the same source:—
Mrs. J——, on rising from her chair one day in 1864 caught her heel in her crinoline, and fell backwards upon her sacrum. She did not feel much pain from the fall at the moment although she felt a good deal shaken. At this period she had been six weeks pregnant. On the fifth day from the date of the accident, having in the meantime, without any definite cause of complaint, been “out of sorts,” she noticed a feeling of stiffness and numbness extending over the whole of the body, but more especially in the extremities. Shortly after this occurred she was seized with convulsions of an epileptiform character. These convulsions they recurred at varying intervals of sometimes three or four days, and at other times of ten days or a fortnight, until her confinement. After this event she was subject to them, but at longer intervals until October, 1869. Their increased frequency about this time induced her to consult Mr. Hutton, both she and her friends considering that, as she had never had any affection of this description previous to her fall, the blow on her back might fairly be looked upon as the cause of her trouble. A very tender spot was complained of at the junction of the last lumbar vertebra with the sacrum. The sensations which preceded the commencement of the fit were referred to that spot and the opinion given by Mr. Hutton was that a bone was “out” there. On the three or four days preceding his visit she had many severe convulsions; she was suffering from exhaustion consequent upon them and fully expected to be obliged to remain in bed some days to recover herself. She describes herself as suffering at the same time from head-ache and fullness; her back was very painful; she was flushed in the face, very depressed in spirits, her eyesight was dim and she was very faint.
When operated upon in the manner, hereafter to be described, she felt “a sudden feeling of numbness of the brain,” this feeling travelling upwards from the spot where the pressure was applied, and then immediately following this a sensation which made her say “I am all right.” In a minute or two she got into bed without assistance, lay down on her left side—a position she had not been able to take before—her color became natural, her head felt as if a weight had been removed from it, the dimness of sight disappeared, and a difficulty of raising the lids previously had gone. She remained in bed two hours, and then was able to be dressed and go down stairs. She had no return of the fits and had been quite free from them up to October, 1870.