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

298 INJURIES OF NERVES.
fifth or one-sixth in power. Sensation, save the softest
touches, was well recognized as to localitj'.
As estimated
by the ^sthesiometer, it is very defective, but cannot be
measured accurately, owing to want of intelligence
in the
patient.
Electro-muscular sensibility lessened, probably onethird.
Electro-muscular irritability
is not lost in any
muscle of the whole extremity, nor diminished, save onesixth
in the last two ulnar interossei of the right hand and
the hypothenar muscles. His hand is normal in appearance,
except that from absence of use it is more delicate
and smoother than is natural. The hypothenar muscles
are one-fifth wasted, and the nails are quite clubbed.
has lost very much in general weight of body, and is not
so robust as before his last fracture. His memory, in
some points,
is not exact, nor is it so retentive as it used
to be.
The following case I quote without change from Dr.
J. L. Stewart's printed account:
He
Case 50.— Bullet injur i/ of the median nerve; causalgla ;
excision of three inches of the median nerve; entire relief.
"A.F. Swann, aged thirty-four, a native of Pennsylvania,
a stout, robust man, and then captain of C Company, 16th
Pennsylvania Cavalry, was wounded by a minie-ball at
The
the battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, May 28, 1864.
ball, fired at about ten rods distance, entered the left forearm
two inches below the head of the radius, and passing
obliquely across the elbow-joint, made its exit just above
the inner condyle of the humerus. From the moment he
was struck he suflered the most intense pain in the arm
and hand, and lost a large quantity of blood.
"The wound was dressed on the field, and healed
kindly. The patient came home to Erie ' on leave' soon
after, and remained until the end ofJune, when, there being
no improvement in his case, he returned to Washington,