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

VARIETIES OF MECHANICAL INJURIES OF NERVES. 91
above the former one, somewhat deeper and longer, she
cried out immediately, to the astonishment of the attendants,
'I am well, I am quite well; I can stir my arm;'
which she began to move, and continued to do so with
great delight for some time in various ways. She had no
return of the spasms, and very soon got well."
Slight injuries of the digital nerves seem especially
prone to occasion distressing symptoms and to awaken
widespread reflex sympathies. Mr. W. M. Banks* has
recently reported several cases of this nature, for which
Mr. Bickersteth removed portions of the affected nerves
with excellent results. No lesion of the exsected portion
could be discovered. The Paccinian corpuscles were
probably increased in number size,— and an observation
not elsewhere made, but deserving of remembrance in
future examinations.
Punctured icounds of nerves. — If we include only those
histories which strictly deserve the name, punctured
wounds are excessively rare, but are apt to be followed
by very serious accidents, owing to secondary changes in
the nerve, and occasionally also by grave constitutional
disturbances.
As I have before remarked, some additional element in
the way of a tendency towards neural malady seems to
be essential to these and to the cases of lancet cuts resulting
in serious symptoms; because it is only in rare
cases after all that we meet with the consequences in
question. Thus in bleeding it was common enough to
cut a small nerve and see no result save a limited
numbness
which gradually faded away, while in animals I have
always failed to excite any of the symptoms so dreaded,
nor has it been found that
by causing punctures of nerves,
the wounds caused by acupuncture are to be greatly
feared even when purposely involving nerve trunks.
* Liverpool Medical and Surgical Keports, Oct. 1869, vol. iii. p. 73.