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

CHAPTER XIII.
LESIONS OF
SPECIAL XERVES.
Wounds whicli involve the nerves of the neck, head,
and face, though rare, are yet of more than ordinary interest
to the phj'siologist, owing to tlieir relations with
the organs of special sense and expression. I have therefore
seen tit to report in this chapter the more remarkable
histories of such cases which have fallen within my experience.
Injuries of the sympathetic nerve. — The only known case
of direct mechanical violence to the sympathetic nerve
was reported by the statf of the U. S. A. Hospital for
Injuries of ]!!Terves, etc.* My own attention was first
drawn to the man by accidentally observing as he passed
me in the wards that one pupil was contracted. He had
been sent to us on account of an obscure affection of the
brain, with headache, occasional faintness, and some loss
of memory. His was the only well-marked case of direct
wound of the sympathetic which I have seen. Its great
physiological and clinical importance as positive proof
that in man the nerve possesses the same function as
it has been shown to exhibit in animals, authorizes me
to quote it at length :
Case 58.— Wound of right sympathetic nerve ;
wound healed
in six iveeks ; cerebral symptoms ; contracted pupil ; p>iosis ;
lachrymation, etc. Edward Mooney,t aged twenty-four,
* Gunshot Wounds and other Injuries of Nerves, p. 39.
t Ibid.
(318)