Amentia and dementia : a clinico-pathological study / by Joseph Shaw Bolton.

  • Bolton, Joseph Shaw, 1867-1946.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Amentia and dementia : a clinico-pathological study / by Joseph Shaw Bolton. 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.

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    number, excepting in the cases where the mental deficiency is associated with epilepsy. The cases have been divided, as a practical working basis, into those without and those with epilepsy, and each of these classes has been further subdivided, according to the degree of mental deficiency, into extreme, moderate, and slight grades. Though from a purely pathological standpoint this grouping of cases possesses the obvious disadvantage of classing together indiscriminately cases of primary and secondary low-grade amentia, it nevertheless has a practical basis in that the cases are arranged according to mental capacity. It also avoids what, for the present purpose of the writer, would be a still greater disadvantage, namely, the errors which would neces- sarily arise in the absence of a complete series of post-mortem examinations, for experience shows that an examination of the cerebrum is necessary in many cases before a correct patho- logical diagnosis is possible. Further, the life history of many of the severer types of low-grade amentia is peculiar in the facts that childhood or cerebral immaturity is relatively pro- longed, that adult life is short, and that senility rapidly ensues on the latter, the whole cycle perhaps lasting thirty to forty years only. As the result of these several considerations the writer has decided that, in a paper dealing with the subject from the stand- point of morbid psychology, a classification based on relative degrees of mental deficiency would best serve his purpose. Class (a). Cases showing Extreme Mental Deficiency. This class contains 21 cases, of whom 13 are males and 8 are females, and includes examples of most of the common types of idiot. A few of the cases show slight signs of intelligence, but none of them are able to work or to do anything for themselves. All have shown symptoms since birth or infancy, and 2 males suffer from paralytic lesions. Nos. 2 and 8 are inserted as illustrative examples. The former is a well-marked case of cerebral immaturity, and the latter is one of microcephalic idiocy. Case 2.—F. L—, male, single, aet. 14. Symptoms from birth. A restless idiot child, who looks like a very big infant of 2 to 3 §