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Further Observations on General Paralysis of the Insane, and on the Morbid Changes found on Post-mortem Examination in the Spinal Cord

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

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In my communication on General Paralysis in the previous number of the Journal, reference is made to tables, showing various particulars in 124 males and 31 females suffering from this disease, and in whom post-mortem examinations were made during a period extending over 20 years. As these tables were found to be too voluminous for publication in the Journal an analysis or summary only was given. A further reference to the subject may not be uninteresting, especially as relates to the spinal canal, the spinal cord, and investing membranes, since any notice of their condition in insane persons is entirely omitted, even by recent observers. These morbid changes, so frequently noticed by myself and colleagues at the Somerset County Asylum, and in many instances submitted to others for microscopical examination, can only have been overlooked in other institutions from the difficulty of exposing the spinal cord, so as to admit of its complete examination, the instruments in common use not being suitable for the purpose. Those I have been in the habit of using for dividing the spinal column, after laying it bare with a large-sized scalpel, are a common tenon saw, a chisel and mallet, the same as used in opening the skull, and both operations may be performed with equal facility after a little practice.

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Part I.—Original Articles
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1871 
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