![]() ![]() This last category Abercrombie counts as simple apoplexy.Īccording to this classification Faria succumbed to primary apoplexy with serous effusion.ĬASE TWO: MONSIEUR NOIRTIER DE VILLEFORTE He further subdivides primary apoplexy into apoplexy with extravasation of blood, apoplexy with serous effusion and apoplexy without any morbid appearance in the brain. apoplectic: secondly that which begin with a sudden attack of headache and pass gradually into apoplexy: thirdly those which are distinguished by palsy and loss of speech without coma’. In this work, seen as a milestone in the development of neuropathology, 4 Abercrombie divides apoplexy into three classes: ‘First those which are immediately. In 1822 Serres divided apoplexies into two groups-those with and those without paralysis 2-but Dumas' understanding is more likely to have been influenced by Abercrombie's Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the Brain and the Spinal Cord 3 first published in 1828. We can also speculate that the medicine given to him by Dantès somehow acted on intracranial or blood pressure.įor answers we should look at medical concepts of apoplexy at the time Dumas was writing, bearing in mind that the postmortem differences between haemorrhage and infarction were not defined until the middle of the nineteenth century. Dumas' description of Faria does not support (or anticipate) a diagnosis of Osler-Rendu-Weber syndrome or Sturge-Weber syndrome. We can speculate that ‘some effusion on the brain’ represents subarachnoid or intracerebral haemorrhage, possibly autosomal dominantly inherited. From a 21st-century perspective it does not make sense, and this is of course a work of fiction. Obviously we can only speculate as to Abbé Faria's condition, which although familial presents with epilepsy, renders the patient hemiplegic after the second episode and kills on the third. He is unexpectedly thrown into the sea, with his feet tied to a thirty-six pound cannonball, despite which he escapes. 166).Īfter Faria's death, Dantès escapes from the Château d'If by substituting himself within Faria's shroud. His eyes reopened with a terrifying expression, he let out a sigh that was closer to a shout, then the whole trembling body relapsed gradually into immobility’ (p. ‘The medicine produced an immediate effect, galvanizing the old man with a violent shudder through all his limbs. ![]() 150)įaria dies as predicted after the third cerebrovascular event even though Dantès gave the remainder of the medicine as instructed. The doctor predicted the same fate for me.’ (p. My father died on the third attack and so did my grandfather. The third time, I shall remain entirely paralysed or shall die at once. My head is muddled, which proves there is some effusion on the brain. Today, I cannot move my right leg or my right arm. ‘Last time the fit lasted half an hour, and after it I felt hungry and got up myself. This is Faria's second attack, the first having been more than ten years previously: 148)įaria regains consciousness but has a right hemiplegia, describing himself as being ‘half a corpse’. When you see me motionless, cold and as it were, dead-and only at that moment you understand-force my teeth apart with the knife and poor eight to ten drops of the liquid into my mouth. But I might also froth at the mouth, stiffen and cry out. I may perhaps remain motionless and not make a sound. Dantès is warned by Faria what to expect and what he must do with some medicine that Faria has kept for the purpose: (From an early edition of The Count of Monte Cristo)įifteen months after their first acquaintance, Faria suddenly becomes unwell.
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