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Published in Anton Sebastian, A Dictionary of the History of Medicine, 2018
Hunt, James Ramsay (1872–1937) American neurologist, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1893 and was made professor of neurology at Columbia in 1931. In 1914 he described fresh cerebral softening in people with carotid artery lesions which led to recognition of cerebrovascular disease from extracerebral vascular involvement. He described a rare form of Parkinsonism due to degeneration of globus pallidus, which occurred before the third decade, in 1917. Ramsay Hunt syndrome is geniculate neuralgia, Hunt atrophy is wasting of small muscles in hands without sensory loss and the Hunt tremor is a striocerebellar tremor.
Richard Bright’s observations on diseases of the nervous system due to inflammation
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2018
Commenting on Case 83 (Figs. 8 and 9; Bright, 1831, p. 181)—a man aged only 28 years, with a long tendency to headache, followed by seizures and gradually increasing “imbecility”—Bright remarked, “The appearance presented gave the idea of parts suffering from the want of nourishment, rather than from inflammatory action, and the vascularity of the pia mater seemed to depend on congestion of the fine arterial branches” (p. 192). In conclusion Bright said concerning the causes of cerebral softening: I am inclined to make a threefold division of cases in which the softened condition of the brain exists.(1) First, where from obstructed circulation the part undergoes a change analogous to gangrene; and this is the more genuine form of the disease (Cases 81–83).(2) Secondly where from congestion the substance of the brain suffers a more or less complete laceration (Cases 21, 84); under this division might be classed all those cases in which disorganization is secondary, to a certain degree mechanically dependent on the presence of tumours, or effused serous fluid, or apoplectic clots (Case 85).(3) And thirdly where softening is produced by inflammatory action (Cases 78–80; p. 194).Thus, we perceive that partial softening of the brain probably owes its origin to a variety of causes and to a considerable range of morbid action. It must, however, be remarked, that in these observations I speak only of partial softening with disorganization of the brain. (p. 195)
Apoplexy in Richard Bright’s (1789–1858) reports of medical cases
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2021
Rochoux also described cases with cerebral softening and an apparent effusion of serum. The first extensive description of cerebral softening was provided by Louis Leon Rostan (1790–1866), who suggested that it was usually a disease sui generis of the brain, a gangrena senilis, and that it was occasionally caused by inflammation (1823). Lallemand (1790–1854) maintained that ramollisement was one of the results of inflammation (1825).