T. G. a man, about fifty-five years of age, was admitted into the
hospital, January 20, 1798. It was stated, that he had been disordered a
year and half, and that his madness arose from repeated intoxication.
Having set fire to several hay-stacks, and committed frequent depredations
on the neighbouring farmers, it had been found necessary to confine him in
the county goal. His behaviour in this situation marked the cunning and
malignity of his mind, so that he was always attempting some mischief
either by violence or stratagem.
When brought to the hospital he conducted himself with propriety and
order, and appeared to be in a state of recovery. On the second of May he
was attacked with a diarrhoea which daily encreased, notwithstanding the
medicines employed for its removal. His mind became violently agitated
from the commencement of the diarrhoea, and it was found proper to
secure him. On the 8th, dysenteric symptoms appeared, which continued to
the 13th, when he died.
_Appearances on Dissection._
The head was opened twenty-four hours after death. The pericranium was
loosely attached to the scull, and the dura mater adhered but slightly to
the internal surface of the cranium; there was a considerable quantity of
water between the dura mater and tunica arachnoidea, this latter membrane
(especially where the hemispheres meet) was of a milky whiteness, and
generally so in the course of the veins of the pia mater. The glandulae
Pacchioni were very large and numerous. Between the tunica arachnoidea and
pia mater there was much water; and from the lateral ventricles, which
were uncommonly enlarged and distended, eight ounces of fluid were
collected: the infundibulum was remarkably large: the membrane lining the
cavity of the lateral ventricles had its veins very turgid: the
consistence of the brain was softer than natural.
The fluid obtained from the brain in this case being very pellucid and
abundant, it was submitted to some chemical tests in order to ascertain
its composition.
An attempt of this kind had been made before; (vide Case 23) the present
may be considered a small addition to our knowledge of this fluid, though
by no means a satisfactory developement of its materials, according to the
severity and precision of modern analysis.[11]