Macewen's sign

English Etymology Discovered by surgeon and professor Sir William Macewen (1848–1924). Proper noun A clinical finding in which percussion of the skull near the junction of the frontal, temporal, and parietal bones produces a cracked-pot sound, indicative of separated sutures. A clinical finding, suggestive of alcoholic coma, in which the pupils are contracted but an external painful stimulation causes dilation followed by slow constriction. en 1957 Alfred Swaine Taylor Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence 2 444 pupils, dilated in alcohol poisoning and in many other poisons. MacEwen's sign is of great value: if a patient has lain undisturbed for half an hour the pupils will be found contracted; en eponyms