Pronounced bilateral asymmetry of the complete upper extremity: a case from the early Neolithic Baikal,Siberia

An adult male skeleton from the early Neolithic cemetery of Shamanka II on the south coast of Lake Baikal (Siberia, Russia) presents one of most striking examples of upper limb bilateral asymmetry documented without obvious indicators of skeletal pathology or trauma to the afflicted arm. The condition is noteworthy not only for its severity, with asymmetry values as high as 89.5%, but also for its involvement of the whole upper extremity, from clavicle to manual phalanges. The lack of any demonstrable hypertrophy on the unaffected left arm, and the clear evidence of extensive hypotrophy/atrophy on the right, leave little doubt that this asymmetry has a pathological or traumatic basis rather than a functional (activity‐induced) one. It most likely reflects paralysis or paresis of the entire right arm resulting from complete brachial palsy incurred prior to the attainment of skeletal maturity in that limb. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations as a Possible Cause of Endocranial Bone Lesions and Associated Neurological Disorder

Endocranial bone lesions have attracted intensive scientific debate on their aetiology. In recent literature, the lesions were almost exclusively interpreted as of infectious origin. In this paper, we give new insight into the aetiology of endocranial lesions, distinguishing the lesions of vascular origin from those caused by tuberculosis or other conditions. The analysis is based on a rare case of a young female individual who displayed multiple endocranial lesions with ‘serpens endocrania symmetrica’ morphology. The lesions were associated with an uncommon branching pattern of the middle meningeal artery and marked side differences in teeth pathology. Postcranial skeleton showed signs of the left upper limb weakness. The macroscopic finding of the endocranial lesions along with the skeletal evidence of neurological damage, together with characteristic radiological and histological features, can lead to diagnosis of arteriovenous malformations. This study aims to improve understanding of the aetiology of endocranial bone lesions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

More than a Disease: The History of General Paralysis of the Insane in Turkey

This article explores the history of general paralysis of the insane (GPI) and its treatment in Turkey. GPI was considered as “a disease of civilization” at the end of the nineteenth century. From the early years of the twentieth century, Turkish psychiatrists discussed and interpreted the causes of GPI and followed the European diagnostic and treatment methods of the disease. Austrian psychiatrist Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857–1940) introduced and developed “malaria fever therapy” for general paralysis in 1917. Malaria fever therapy spread to other countries and, during the 1920s, the treatment was also used in Turkey. This article not only aims to illuminate an unnoticed aspect of the history of psychiatry in Turkey but also uses GPI as a model to illustrate how psychiatry in Turkey was influenced by the developments in Europe.     

The laryngoscope and nineteenth-century British understanding of laryngeal movements

ABSTRACT

The source of the human voice is obscured from view. The development of the laryngoscope in the late 1850s provided the potential to see the action of the vocal folds during speaking for the first time. This new instrument materially contributed to the understanding of vocal fold neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neuropathology. The laryngoscope led to elaborated understanding of disorders that previously were determined by changes in sound. The objective of this paper is to detail the consequences of this novel visualization of the larynx, and to trace how it aided in the development of understanding of the movements of the vocal folds. This is demonstrated through an examination of the activities and practices of a group of London clinicians in the second half of the nineteenth century.     

William Rutherford Sanders (1828–1881) and his neurologically fertile years (1865–1868)

ABSTRACT

William Rutherford Sanders (1828–1881) was an Edinburgh physician who occupied the Chair of Pathology at the University of Edinburgh from 1869 to 1881. All of his published output between 1865 and 1868 was concerned with neurology. In arguing that a patient did not have paralysis agitans, Sanders (1865) employed the term “Parkinson’s disease” for the first time in the English-language literature to distinguish between the disorder that Parkinson (1817) termed “paralysis agitans” and other types of shaking palsies. He contributed a major chapter on the same topic to Russell Reynolds’s A System of Medicine (1868). Sanders also investigated the innervation of the palate and facial muscles (1865), and in 1866 recorded the autopsy findings in two cases of aphasia. Here, for the first time in the English-language literature, he described findings that supported Broca’s location of the representation of speech to a particular area of the left cerebral hemisphere.