**APOPLEXY** (stroke or apoplectic fit). — The sudden abolition of an individual’s sensitivity, motility, and external consciousness (v. COMA) due to destructive lesions of the brain (cerebral haemorrhage, cerebral embolism). The simultaneous abolition of internal consciousness is probable, so that, even though the principal functions of vegetative life may persist more or less, the patient must be regarded as deprived of the use of his intelligence. If death does not ensue, upon the resolution of the coma there appear sensory and motor paralyses of greater or lesser extent, together with disturbances of speech (aphasia). If the causal lesions were not very extensive or severe, the stroke may resolve, and consciousness may be regained more or less rapidly and completely; however, sensory-motor paralyses and intellectual deficits often remain. Besides arteriosclerosis, syphilis is a frequent cause.
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