Auscultation of the Knee Joint

WILLIAM ERNEST BLODGETT
1902 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal  
wore normal, and thero is an absence of lung disease 'a the family history. Prossure over tho right vagus is very painful', aggravates the occipital fulness, induces a feeling oí faintuess and a weakness in tho lower limbs. Injected 5 minims of the silver nitrate solution in the right side of the nock over tho vagus, and gave her internally: B Strych. sulph.gr. 1 'Juin, sulph.dr.iss Cinch. Balloyl.dr. ss PU. hydrarg.gr. Iv Make xxxifcapsnles. Sig.-One capsule every four hours. In five days she
more » ... rote mo from her home, which was about 50 miles distant, that she feels much better and Stronger, and that the occipital pain and fulness had entirely disappeared 24 hours after the injection was given, and there is no return of same up to present date. The following case, VIII, is of more physiologic than therapeutio interest, inasmuch as it has been seen very recently for the first time and has not yet undergone any treatment. M., aged 50, with some cough, expectoration and loss Of llesh, feels weak and is very easily exhausted. For months before I saw him lie complained of fulness and throbbing in tho base of tho brain on the left side. There are no abnormal physical signs in the chest except an occasional short sibilant râle in the right lung. Very slight pressure with my thumb on his loft vagus produced marked faintuess, dyspnea, and a feeling of helplessness of the whole body. These effects wero so pronounced that ho would have fallen on the floor if I had not caught him and placed him In a chair. In briefly reviewing the histories of these interesting cases it will be seen that the vagus reflex seems to figure as a central, or at least as one of tlie most obvious lesions which lie at the bottom of their varied manifestations. How to account for all the symptoms which followed vagus compressons on the score of the latter operation is not an°a sy matter in some of these instances. It is obvious, perhaps, why vagus pressure should produce fulness and pain in the occiput, or a feeling°i loss of consciousness, because .the vagus is in direct physiological union with the lower and higher nerve centres. But bow to connect the «old sweating and tingling in the arms on the saino side as that on which the pressure was made,°r the sudden helplessness which conies over the lower extremities, as was experienced in three of the above related cases, with vagus compression, js a subject for further study and elucidation. I'hat the vagus lesion is the leading factor in the Pathology of the cases is confirmed or at least indicated by the oounterirritant influence of the silver injections, which relieved and abated the whole abnormal condition. It is true that most 01 the patients also received other treatment, but it is hardly probable that this had any marked Control on the disease. This is well demonstrated in the history of Case VI, which had received uiorphin, codein, cocain, strychnin, quinin, etc., lor some days without the slightest relief to the paroxysmal cough, but as soon as the silver was administered subcutaneously over the vagus which was most sensitive, the abatement was quick and permanent. Another feature worthy of consideration in these vagus-reflex oases is, that in not one of them, except in the first and second, was there any marked lesions of the pulmonary organs, although to anyone who has paid attention to the relations which exist between vagus pain and pulmonary disease, it is quite clear that the former is very frequently a premonitory symptom of the latter, and may therefore be regarded as an important
doi:10.1056/nejm190201161460304 fatcat:k7wsg3pdtnahhjhq44wbkymx7y