On softening of the brain arising from anxiety & undue mental exercise and resulting in impairment of mind / Forbes Winslow.

  • Winslow, Forbes, 1810-1874.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On softening of the brain arising from anxiety & undue mental exercise and resulting in impairment of mind / Forbes Winslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    not have cast the faintest shadow on our path of life; all may appear calm and secure, and yet the enemy may be creeping stealthily on in his sure but fatal progress. We know, as experienced and practical men, how in- sidious are the disorders of the brain and nervous system: great irremediable changes may be taking place in the delicate structure of the nervous matter, without presenting any very obvious and appreciable indications of their existence. But, alas, how often are these mani- festations of health but ignes fatui, luring us on with false hopes of security, even at a time when the seeds of terrible disease of the brain may be in the process of germination? I have had painful opportunities of seeing some sad cases among members of our own profession, illustrating—vividly illustrating—the previous observa- tions. I have witnessed men apparently in the vigour of health, in the full tide of professional prosperity, sud- denly sink from the possession of all their mental facul- ties into hopeless fatuity, the consequence of an over- exercise of the cerebral functions. I have watched these cases with great and unusual interest. This impair- ment of the intelligence, this sudden extinction of the powers of the understanding, this change from vigorous mental capacity, to almost hopeless imbecility and drivelling idiocy, have given little or no warnings of their approach. The loss of capacity has apparently been sudden; yet upon instituting a close and searching exa- mination into the history of the cases, I have generally been enabled to detect faint gleams of the disease, at a distance very far remote from the positive development of symptoms usually considered indicative of organic cerebral disease. This morbid change in the structure of the brain, associated with loss of mind, is not confined