Some difference in the temperature on the two sides of the body points to injury or apoplexy.
The depth of the coma is often of the greatest assistance in the differential diagnosis. Thus, in concussion, alcohol poisoning, and in the minor grades of epilepsy and uræmia, the patient may often be sufficiently aroused by shouting in the ear, digital pressure over the supra-orbital nerves, or by the application of the battery, as to give some account of the accident, &c. In compression, in the deeper states of uræmic and diabetic poisoning, and in the status epilepticus, the patient can seldom be aroused from the deep coma into which he is sunk.
In all cases of doubt the patient must be kept under careful observation.
[26] Syst. of Pract. Surg., vol. ii.
[27] Deutsche Zeit. für Chir., Bd. 4, vols. i and iii.
[28] Guy’s Hosp. Reports, 1885-6.
[29] Bergmann’s System of Surgery, vol. i.
[30] Ruptures de l’Artère méningée moyenne.
[31] Guy’s Hospital Reports, vol. lix.