MEDICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10347, 23 January 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

EXTRACTION OF TEETH AND FACIAL FARALYSIS.

In the Wiener Klinisohe Kundsohau a paper on this subject has been published by Dr. Frankl. Hochwarb, in which he gives an account of six cases which he has observed. In the first case the patienb had had an attack of facial paralysis seven years before, and the second attack, which affected the same side, came on the day after the extraction of a tooth also on that aide. In the next these cases complete facial paralysis came on ft fow days after extraction of teeth and withoub any other complication, aud in these casra the paralysis was on the same side a3 the extraction. So it was in the sixth case, while in the fifth it was on the opposite side. Or. Hochwart does not regard the actual extraction as. the direct cause of the paralysis, bub rather the condition of inflammation which renders extraction necessary or, at least, desirable; and he points out the fact that injury to_ a tooth may cause paralysis in anyone with a predispositionf as waa the case in a younp woman who suffered from a third attack of facial paralysis after the accidental breaking of an incisor. He also thinks that inflammation about the teeth may cause paralysis oven if extraction has nob been done,— Lancet,

AN ORIENTAL PLAGUE IN DUBLIN. Our latest! information about the current) epidemic ef beri-beri in the Richmond Asylum ie to the effect that up to date there had been 83 cases—s3 fe'males, including five nurses, and 30 males. Six of the female patients have died, and in two their illness was o£ the somewhat rare convulsive form. Another of the fatal cases exemplified the uncertainty of the disease; at first tho case was of mild type, and the patient after a time appeared to get well. Subsequently she relapsed, though appa> retiSly not to a serious extent. Convalescence again eet in, when suddenly symptoms of cardiac trouble appeared, and death was preceded by dyspnoea, apparently from paralysis oi the respiratory muscles—a mode of death which was Frequently observed in the epidemic of 1894, Notwithstanding: the ndven.b of winter, it would appear that the epidemic still continues, for since our last information there have been ten additional cases. We are glad to see, however, that the Irish press and the public have taken the matter up, and we can only hope that some good will result from this publicity as •■well , « from the somewhat heated discussion which took place- ab the fortnightly meeting of the governors held at the asylum on. October 21. Prom the newspaper accounts of what transpired at this meeting we gather that the insanitary state oi. the institution is now thoroughly recognised, and that there seems bo a general desire among the governors to do eomothing to obriate the present scandalous-congestion/and to hurry on the projected buildings intended to provide the much-ueedei relief.— British Medical Journal. /