Apoplexy

Apoplexy (from Ancient Greek ἀποπληξία, meaning "a striking away") is bleeding within internal organs and the accompanying symptoms. For example, ovarian apoplexy is bleeding in the ovaries. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke;^[1] nowadays, health care professionals typically specify the type of apoplexy, such as cerebral, ovarian and pituitary apoplexy.

Informally, apoplexy is associated with being furious, especially as "apoplectic".^[2]

Historical meaning

From the late 14th to the late 19th century,^[3] apoplexy referred to any sudden death that began with a sudden loss of consciousness, especially one in which the victim died within a matter of seconds after losing consciousness. The word apoplexy may have been used to refer to the symptom of sudden loss of consciousness immediately preceding death. Ruptured aortic aneurysms, and even heart attacks and strokes were referred to as apoplexy in the past, because before the advent of medical science there was little ability to differentiate pathoses because there was very little accurate understanding of physiology in general.

Hemorrhage

Because the term by itself is now ambiguous, it is often coupled with a descriptive adjective to indicate the site of bleeding. For example, bleeding within the pituitary gland is called pituitary apoplexy, and bleeding within the adrenal glands can be called adrenal apoplexy.

Apoplexy also includes hemorrhaging with the gland and accompanying neurological problems such as confusion, headache, and impairment of consciousness.

Deaths attributed to apoplexy

Georgius Agricola Louisa May Alcott Ethan Allen Isaac Ambrose Frederick Lothrop Ames[4] John Albion Andrew John Andrews William Apess Johann Sebastian Bach Paul Baloff Colonel James Barclay Catharine Beecher Joachim du Bellay Sam Bernard Marie-Henri Beyle (Stendhal) Thomas William Booker-Blakemore Jean de La Bruyère Al Capone[5] Catherine the Great Jean-François Champollion Charles II of England Robert Chilton Empress Dowager Cixi[6] Menno van Coehoorn Nicolaus Copernicus John Frederic Daniell Prof Dyce Davidson[7] Richard Dewhurst Charles Dickens Daniel Drawbaugh Joseph Ducreux[8] Gabriel Dumont Leonhard Euler[9] Félix Faure Johann Christian Fischer Gustave Flaubert Jacob Frank Andrew Freedman Émile Gaboriau Asa Bird Gardiner Orlando Gibbons George Gordon Sir Thomas Gresham Cemal Gürsel Charles Francis Hall Winfield Scott Hammond Template:Thomas Hancock Lewis Harding Warren G. Harding John Haviland Matthew Henry Johann Friedrich Herbart Alois Hitler[10] Leopold of Hohenzollern[11] Kwan Hoi-San Edward Jenner Pope John XII Fred Jones

Robert William Lawrence Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Emich Charles Le Gendre Harry Ward Leonard[12] Toussaint Louverture William Lyon Mackenzie James Lucas Marcello Malpighi Field Marshal Erich von Manstein[13] William Marsden Pope Martin V Felix Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn[14] Stephen Nehmé Pope Nicholas III Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin Michel Ordener[15] Samuel Parkes VC Thomas Patch[16] Jan Patočka Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice[17] Emlen Physick Petrarch[14] John Pölzl[18] Samuel Prout Stamford Raffles William Leman Rede Jean-Jacques Rousseau Elizabeth Singer Rowe Edward Rutledge John Ryle Isaiah Rynders Francis de Sales Swami Saradananda James Savage[19] Mary Seacole Dionysios Solomos Agostino Steffani Pope-elect Stephen Robert Louis Stevenson[20] Thomas Noon Talfourd Jerry Thomas Valentinian Horace Vere Swami Vivekananda Joseph Weizenbaum General Josiah Porter Louis Wigfall Isaac Wilson Woodrow Wilson John Wycliffe Frederick T. B. Young William Ziegler Captain William Fowler Edmund Blacket Arthur Stilwell Martin Luther Eugen Cicero Roger Cicero

See also

• Transient ischemic attack

References

1. Apoplexy at MedicineNet.com.
2. Collins World English Dictionary: apoplexy
3. OED Online, 2010, Oxford University Press. 7 February 2011
4. "F.L. AMES'S SUDDEN DEATH". New York, NY: New York Times. 14 September 1893. p. 8. Retrieved 18 February 2016. Death was caused by apoplexy
5. The New York Times, January 26, 1947: "Capone Dead at 48". The New York Times. January 26, 1947. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
6. The New York Times, November 20, 1908: "Dowager Empress died of Apoplexy". The New York Times. November 20, 1908. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
7. British Medical Journal, 30 October 1886
8. Pastel and pastellists, February 13, 2013: "Joseph DUCREUX" (PDF). Retrieved April 30, 2013.
9. "Leonhard Euler (1707–1783)".
10. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, 4%
11. Archived August 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
12. The New York Times, February 19, 1915: "H. Ward Leonard Dies -Electrical Inventor Stricken". The New York Times.
13. Melvin, Mungo (2011). Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General. London: Phoenix Orion Books. p. 503. ISBN 978-0-7538-2853-3.
14. Ferguson Nisbet, John. The Insanity of Genius and the General Inequality of Human Faculty. Elibron Classics. ISBN 1-4212-7299-7.
15. St. Hilaire, "Military Household of the Emperor." Sixth Book, 1806. Napoleon Series. Robert Burnham, editor in chief. September 2005. Accessed 18 May 2010. (French) Mullié Charles. "Michel Ordener." Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850, Paris, 1852.
16. "Letter of Horace Mann to Horace Walpole, 30 April 1782". Images.library.yale.edu. 2013-04-17. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
17. "The New Administration". The Illustrated London News (Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited). 7 July 1866.
18. "Polk County Journal (Crookston, MN), July 7, 1905 to December 28, 1905, Volume XXX, Page 170 | Document Viewer". Mocavo.com. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
19. Craik, Alex D. D. (2008). Mr Hopkins' Men: Cambridge Reform and British Mathematics in the 19th Century. London: Springer. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-84800-132-9.
20. The New York Times, December 18, 1894: "Death of R.L. Stevenson". The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2010.

External links

• The dictionary definition of apoplexy at Wiktionary