The disease is a rare one. But two recent
distinct cases are in my list, and one of these, the one here reported,
seems rather more like an ataxia with some anomalous symptoms. The
second one had the symptom, uncommon in this malady, of very frequent
and excessively severe stabbing pains, and though his co-ordination grew
somewhat better, he improved very little in any other way, which, as his
trouble was of fourteen years standing, was not astonishing.
The other patient, seen in 1897, was a rancher from New Mexico,
thirty-three years old, who had led an active, hard-working,
much-exposed life, but had been perfectly well until 1891, when he was
said to have had an attack of spinal meningitis, from which he recovered
very slowly. Four years later he noticed numbness of feet and weakness
of legs, great enough to make it hard for him to get a leg over his
horse. Some pains were felt in the limbs, and a constriction about the
chest and abdomen, which had steadily increased in severity. Sharp
attacks left distinct bruise-marks at the seat of pain each time.
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