Two unique cases of insanity : possibly epileptic / by Theo. W. Fisher.

  • Fisher, Theodore W. (Theodore Willis), 1837-1914.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two unique cases of insanity : possibly epileptic / by Theo. W. Fisher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/24 (page 8)
    first one; tfiat the apparent opisthotonos was the result of his agony in the endeavor to bite his finger off; and the emprosthotonos in the evening was the position assumed by him in his efforts to vomit the ring. His recollection of the attack must be taken with some allowance considering the extreme mental excitement. Ilis last statement was partly confirmed by the fact that at the hospital he stood on his head in a corner for the purpose of better ejecting the ring. His consciousness was certainly in abeyance during the second attack in November, at times, as he failed to remember certain events, though he did remember other circumstances in the course of the attack. He claimed to have been conscious the whole time. When*put in the bath, for instance, he remembered a remark made the night before about his posing as a Greek statue, but forgot who undressed him. He seemed to assume the opisthotonic attitude voluntarily in the bath, and when remonstrated with said he would not do it again. His mental condition had been that of depression, emotional excitability, and at times delusion of a tran- sient character. Some of his ideas concerning his rela- tions to Mr. M. were of a delusional nature. In the second attack he seemed to have delusions about certain patients, and to be apprehensive of harm from them. His mental state had some of the characteristics of hebephrenia, for in spite of his size and muscularity he was still a very young man. Dr. A.' McLane Hamilton, in Brain, January 1886,' reports a case of hystero-catalepsy in a male cured by testicular pressure. He says it is the only case of the kind in a male he can find reported. I have not attempted to fiud recorded cases as similar ones are not extremely uncommon in my experience, the motor symptoms ranging from slight and transient rigidity to the most perfect and prolonged attacks of catalepsy.