Acute confusional insanity / by Conolly Norman.

  • Norman, Conolly.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acute confusional insanity / by Conolly Norman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    spoken to. Complained of pains shooting through extremities, particularly backs of hands and feet. January 3.—Called the charge nurse “ Mrs. B.” (her husband’s nurse), and asked her for “ the keys ” to get some whisky from the cupboard. When she was questioned about this she called the nurse by the proper name, and knew where she was ; but again, after a while, called her Mrs. B., and spoke to her as if she was at home. January 5. Told Dr. Cope that her younger son, Tom, ten years old, slept in her bed last night; he was ill and restless. Later on she told me this must have been a dream. January 7.—Sluggish, dreamy, and unintelligent; sure both her little boys are dead ; pains shooting down her arms and legs, and constantly present in dorsal surfaces of hands and feet; knee jerk equal, diminished ; all the muscles flabby and feeble; no distinct paralysis; no drop wrist or drop ankle. January 21.—“ Gaining intelligence of manner and expression; still puzzling about her children and sister whether they are living or dead (as a matter of fact they are all alive).” From date of last note there was steady improvement. Her recollec- tion of the events preceding admission remained vague, summary, and confused, but she was conscious of this confusion. She stated that her previous illness had been exactly of the same character. She continued to suffer from pains—vague, shifting, darting pains—as if in the bones or deep in the muscles, chiefly in legs and forearms, and especially hands and feet. Discharged, recovered, April 3, 1889. Case II.—Acute Hallucinatory Confusion associated with Alcoholic Excess; Epileptiform Seizures; Recovery.—The above is an extremely typical case of alcoholism in a woman. While she was under treatment an almost identical case was admitted into the Asylum. The details are so similar that I need not trouble you by entering into them. A woman of nearly forty, mother of two children, had a strong hereditary tendency to drink, to which she had entirely given way. She was deserted bv her husband, and lived with relations who were always drunk. Had suffered from occasional epileptic fits. When admitted (February 20, 1889) she pre- sented all the appearances of recent hard drinking ; next morning she had two epileptic or epileptiform seizures ; mentally she presented a state of confusion such as I have above described ; she was slow and dreamy in conversation ; could be roused to comparative clearness, but soon became confused again ; thus she mistook me for the doctor who had been attending her in a suburb ; the error was pointed out; she acknow- ledged it, but in talking to me drifted into references to my previous visits to her, and so forth, showing that the confusion persisted. After initial restlessness of the delirium tremens type had passed off she became