During the bleeding he looked wildly at the basin, and begged
that no more might be spilt (a drop or two had fallen), repeating
frequently, in great agitation, as the blood was running, "Take
care! take care!"
Between two and three o'clock next morning my assistant (Mr.
Davies) visited him. He found him tolerably passive, but observing
every movement with intense anxiety. Pulse full and hard, face
flushed, eyes denoting cerebral irritation. He had been at times
outrageous. On its being intimated that bleeding was again
necessary, a paroxysm came on more intense than any preceding,--and
with great effort he submitted. As the blood flowed he became
more and more alarmed, till at length he got quite unmanageable;
he raged violently at his nephew, who was holding the basin, and
ordered it peremptorily to be removed. 30 or 40℥. were taken
away. It was found necessary to put on the straight waistcoat.
About four o'clock Mr. Davies wished him to take some more of his
medicine. He said, "I can take no more," and on reaching the bottle
to put out a few drops, he became violently agitated, threw himself
from side to side, and, as well as the incessant spasmodic sobbings
would allow, he begged that not one more drop of any thing might be
offered him, and that the bottle might be taken from his sight. He
did not become tranquillized until its removal. He lingered on till
ten A.M. in the same state, a few minutes before which he insisted
on getting up, and walked a short way down his garden, returned,
laid down on his bed, and died.
Mr. Frederick Salmon, of Old Broad Street, and Mr. Wilson, of
Chelsea, were kind enough to assist me in conducting the post
mortem examination. On opening the chest, the heart was free from
disease, with rather more water in the pericardium than natural;
the lungs were completely gorged with grumous blood, and the pleura
adherent on the right side. On removing the cranium, which was
remarkably thin, and cutting the substance of the brain, numerous
red spots presented themselves in the medullary portion; about a
table-spoonful of water in each ventricle; the plexus choroides was
turgid; the corpora, striata, thalami, and basis of the brain every
where preternaturally injected; the cerebellum, crura cerebri, and
cerebelli, in a high state of inflammation. On removing the spinous
process of the vertebra, the whole cord was considerably inflamed;
and opposite the two last cervical and dorsal vertebræ the cellular
substance was studded with dark patches of coagulated blood, the
theca vertebralis thickened, and the cord in an active state of
inflammation. The larynx and pharynx bore not the slightest vestige
of disease. The preparation of the cord is deposited in the museum
of the London University.
The post mortem examination of this case tends to prove the
correctness of Professor Thompson's theory of the proximate cause
and seat of this afflicting malady; and the plate accompanying a
case recorded by him, in the 13th volume of the Med. Chir. Society,
gives a faithful delineation of the state in which the spinal cord
was found in this case.