As cases of acute ascending paralysis are of somewhat rare occurrence, and as the following case differed in some of its features from the type described in textbooks , I venture to think that a short account of it will interest some readers of THE LANCET. S. S-. a man fifty years of age, came to hospital on Oct. 19th, 1886, complaining of pains about his shoulder blades and in the back of his neck, attended occasionally with a slight degree of fever. Little importance was attached to what appeared to be a case of muscular rheumatism. No symptoms of nervous disease declared themselves until five days after his admission-viz., on Oct. 24th, when, on rising in the morning, he found that he could not in walking lift the right foot clear of the ground ; he either dragged the foot, or else. to avoid doing so, had to swing the entire limb outwards f:.om the hip. Sensation in this leg was uneected; the right patellar-tendon reflex was exaggerated. The left leg was free from nervous symptoms of any kind. The pains in the upper part of the back mentioned above continued. On Nov. lst a rather large vesicle (" bulla") appeared suddenly on the front of his left patella, and burst on the same day, leaving a purple, discoloured base. On the 3rd he noticed that he sometimes passed urine unconsciously in bed, and at other times that, although
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.