Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1271

JEAN MEHEE DE LA TOUCHE (fl. 1773-1800) Traité des lésions de la tête par contre-coup. Chez Didot le jeune 1774 [2] 264, xix [2] 3 pp. 16.6 cm.

Fifty years ago books dealing with head injuries nearly always devoted a section or chapter to contrecoup injuries of the head. These injuries result from a blow or impact on the opposite side of the head and have been attributed to a variety of mechanisms. Today interest in contrecoup injuries has waned and the overall neurological deficit is now of primary concern. During the middle of the eighteenth century there was a great deal of interest in the subject--enough interest that in 1760 the Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris offered a prize to the individual who could develop a practical theory of counterstroke in head injuries. In the present work Méhée de la Touche, a French army surgeon, records case histories and animal experiments concerned with contrecoup. His discussion also includes the formation of intracranial abscesses following surgery or injury, post-traumatic hematomas, and many other forms of cerebral and cerebellar pathology that are not related to contrecoup. The author was acquainted with cerebral location of function and quotes freely from Wilhelm Fabricius von Hilden, Paré, Morgagni, and Valsalva.

Cited references: Waller 6437 (Meaux ed., 1773)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.