Chloroform was administered for the purpose of straightening the foot, September 2, that is, about five weeks after the apparent end of the tetanus. The first stage of the anesthesia lasted about two minutes, but at this point the trunk and leg muscles passed into a state of diffuse contracture. In fact, a tetanic syndrome took place in the midst of the anesthesia. At a time when the corneal reflex was completely abolished, it was still impossible, with the exertion of the greatest strength, to flex the segments of the lower extremities. Moreover, the trunk was stiffly extended and the jaws were in trismus. Tonic and clonic contractions were produced by the efforts made to straighten the foot, and these contractions passed from the right side to the left. The chloroform was now increased and a transient resolution of the muscles was obtained, lasting hardly more than a half minute. As all efforts to reduce the pedal deformity failed, anesthesia was stopped. The contractures and paroxysms lasted a few minutes. The knee-jerks were extremely exaggerated and there was a bilateral ankle clonus. After a brief phase of excitement, the patient emerged from anesthesia, began to talk with his comrades, and ate his usual meal without inconvenience. The chloroform anesthesia had lasted twenty minutes, and 60 grams had been administered.
It was now determined to section the tendo Achilles and the tibialis posticus. September 8 the man was chloroformed again and the same phenomena were exactly reproduced. Sixty grams of chloroform was again administered. The tendon resections permitted placing the foot in the proper attitude. Next day the patient was examined neurologically. The skin reflexes were found normal. The Achilles and knee-jerks were somewhat exaggerated, but equal on the two sides. There was no ankle clonus. Sensations proved normal. There was a mechanical hyperexcitability of the muscles of the anterior aspect of the thighs and of the calf.
In another case chloroformed 17 months after recovery from tetanus no such phenomena appeared. It would seem that the impregnation with tetanic virus or toxin must last in the nervous system a good deal longer than the apparent disease clinically lasts, but that this belated and concealed intoxication eventually passes.
The phenomena are perhaps analogous to those of Babinski and Froment’s so-called post-traumatic physiopathic or reflex phenomena. It was following the special work of Babinski and Froment upon the use of chloroform anesthesia in detecting physiopathic conditions that Monier-Vinard made his observations in cases of tetanus.
Shell-shock from falling of shell at a distance: Hysterical hemiplegia, terminating in brachial monoplegia. Case to show that the reflex or physiopathic disorders of Babinski and Froment may occur without mechanical injury in the region involved.
Case 281. (Ferrand, June, 1917.)
A soldier of the class of 1917 who never went to the front, while in training at Belfort, felt violent emotion on the occasion of the falling of a big shell in the town of Belfort. The explosion was a good distance from him. He lost consciousness a few moments, February 23, 1917, and almost at once found himself unable to move his left side. He was hemiplegic three months, but his leg shortly regained power. December 23 he entered a neurological center with his arm flaccid and a paralysis affecting the shoulder also. There was an almost complete anesthesia of the arm terminating in segmentary fashion about the shoulder, and the whole of the left side was slightly hypesthetic, although there was no disorder of motion except in the arm. The tendon reflexes of the left arm were exaggerated, and there was even contracture upon percussion of the muscles themselves. Percussion of the thenar and hypothenar eminences produced movements of the hand. There were several vasomotor disorders. Percussion led to large vasomotor plaques, and rubbing of the skin produced a reddening which passed away slowly. The hand was red and cold. Slight electrical hyperexcitability of flexors with feeble galvanic current; excitation of the extensors not associated with any contractions of the antagonist muscles. Threshold lower for flexors on the affected side in the forearm. Half centimeter atrophy of the biceps. The forearm and hand were possibly slightly increased in volume from a blue edema of the dorsal surfaces. The man was very timid, complained little, and accepted all treatment, which, however, was not very effective. This is presented by Ferrand as a case with physiopathic disorder in the sense of Babinski and Froment, though it does not present any sign of organic lesion whatever.
Shell fire: Delayed shell-shock symptoms, sub-lethal, appearing in England.