ORGANIC BRAIN LESIONS

Apoplexy, Meningitis, Intracranial Growths

STOKES-ADAMS DISEASE

MALINGERING

DISSEMINATED SCLEROSIS

Chart 15

1. Are certain cases of syphilitic epilepsy really cases of Jacksonian epilepsy? As a matter of nomenclature, Jacksonian cortical epilepsy is usually the result of a focal and circumscribed irritative lesion in the cortex. Gumma, local syphilitic meningitis, and syphilitic vascular lesions, as well as scars consequent upon the latter, are among the causes of Jacksonian epilepsy, along with such other focal lesions as trauma, tumor abscess, tubercle, and the like. Even non-syphilitic Jacksonian epilepsy has been observed from time to time in cases of diffuse intracranial pressure. Jacksonian attacks also have been found in so-called genuine epilepsy. Accordingly, we must not conclude from the occurrence of Jacksonian convulsions, even though in a proved syphilitic case, that the convulsions in question are surely due to a focal lesion, for they may be due to diffuse syphilitic lesions.

2. What is the significance of aphasia in Agnes O’Neil? Aphasia is not a characteristic symptom in ordinary Jacksonian epilepsy, but the aphasia is another sign of focal lesion and forms an added argument against the diagnosis of genuine or idiopathic epilepsy. See also discussion of aphasia in paretic neurosyphilis under Case Levenson (22).

3. What is the behavior of the serum W. R. and the spinal fluid W. R. under systematic treatment? Sometimes, as in this case, the serum W. R. remains positive and the fluid W. R. becomes negative; but in other equally well-defined cases, the reverse holds true, and the serum W. R. reaction becomes negative whereas the spinal fluid reaction remains positive. The obvious conclusion is that we cannot always be sure even by faithful tests of either the serum or the fluid alone, whether the treatment has succeeded in abolishing the laboratory signs.

4. Can this case be regarded as one of cure? Not by the definition adopted in this book or by the syphilographers who take into account not only the nervous system but the body which contains it. To be sure, the spinal fluid of Agnes O’Neil is now entirely negative and she is clinically free from symptoms; yet from the broad standpoint of syphilis therapy in general, this patient is not cured, as is evidenced by the positive serum W. R.