Injuries of nerves and their consequences - Reflex Sympathetic ...

260 INJURIES OF NERVES.
called npon to replace the enfeebled will of the sufferer.
In other respects this case is remarkable, since it shows
that a lesion probably limited to the anterior columns of
the spine in the neck, may occasion atrophy and almost
universal anchylosis from arthritic lesions. Its importance
must excuse my quoting at length from the little
volume so often mentioned.*
Case 43.— S. Johnson, aged eighteen, Pennsylvania.
previous business. Private, Company I, 8th Pennsylvania
Cavalry. Enlisted for three years, August, 1861.
Health good previous to enlistment, except as interrupted
by an attack of typhoid fever four years before. Six
months after enlisting he had a fever, probably of a malarious
character. Three weeks before he was wounded
he suffered w'ith pain in the right leg, made worse by
movement, but unaccompanied by any rheumatic swelling
of the joints.
May 3, 1863. — He was wounded by a small ball in the
left cheek while riding at a trot. It entered at the middle
of the ramus of the jaw, a little below the level of the
teeth. From his position, as well as the after-evidence, it
seems that the ball passed backward and inward, and
finally lodged in the spinal column. The edge of the jaw
was somewhat injured, and probably was the source of
the small fragments of bone which afterwards escaped
from the neck. When shot, the man fell forward on his
horse's neck ; says he was confused, though conscious,
and felt as if he had been struck in the ear, and then
lifted up in air. He also felt instant pain in the back of
his neck, and in all of his limbs. There were no spasms.
He was removed from his horse and carried to a house
near by. The motion increased his pain, especially any
movement of the neck. He now became aware of the
No
* Op.
cit. p. 22, Injuries of Nerves, etc.