Journal of the American Medical Association · 1929 · 27 citations · 1 references
MedicineInfectious DiseasesNeurologyInfectious Disease PathologyMovement DisordersNeuroinfectious DiseasesEncephalitisPostinfectious Neurologic SyndromesRabies NeuropathologyRabies VirusViral Neuropathology
Up to 1877, paralysis as a predominant feature of rabies was not distinguished. It was recognized that paralysis might sometimes appear as a terminal condition, but always following, it was thought, the usual hydrophobic symptoms. Bruardel's<sup>1</sup>description is typical of that time: "In man rabies passes through three stages; the first is characterized by melancholy; the second by excitement and spasms of the organs of respiration and deglutition; the third, of short duration, which is rarely reached by the patient, is characterized by paralysis." Gamaleia<sup>2</sup>in 1877, in a study of twenty cases of rabies in which paralysis was the predominant symptom, endeavored to distinguish on this basis a paralytic form of the disease differing from the usual type, in which paralysis occurred not at all or only as a terminal event. He grouped his cases according to the mode of onset of the paralysis. In some cases
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