An inquiry into the real nature of hysteria / by D. de Berdt Hovell.

  • Hovell, Dennis de Berdt.
Date:
[1870]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the real nature of hysteria / by D. de Berdt Hovell. 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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    fectly sound, or whether it was fatty. The shock produced death. Now, if a cause of this magnitude produce death in a man, it is not difficult to perceive that a shock of less degree would suffice to in- fluence the more delicate organization of a woman, and affect her health in a greater or less degree. To treat such a case physically, and to ignore the psychical element, would necessarily be to treat such a case imperfectly. II. When, after a long and fatiguing march the British Army was approaching Magdala, many men of the 4th Regiment fell out of the ranks and remained behind, many murmured and were dis- contented ; the order of march was disarranged, disorganization and demoralization had begun. Suddenly the enemy appeared in sight, the bugle sounded, weariness, fatigue, pains, discontent, hunger and thirst were forgotten, all eagerly came to the front, ready for action. Here physical fatigue, together with some sense of hope deferred, and disappointment, sufficed to cause moral depression, which was soon dispelled by “the trumpet call of duty/’ III. A labouring man was partially buried by a slip of earth, and nearly an hour elapsed before he could be extricated; for a time he was cold and almost pulseless, but when he was disinterred he asked anxiously for his wife, and became hysterical. It is quite clear that this condition was the combined effect of shock and consequent emotion. Its occurrence in a man also proves that the hypothesis which connects the condition with the organ with which the name assumes that it is inseparably connected, is quite fallacious. It is surprising that in this age of enlightenment a term, so wrong, and involving so much ignorance and prejudice, should have been so long retained, and pertinaciously used. It is simply an emotional condition affecting the physical frame ; and being in itself psychical, that is to say essentially moral, it affects the moral condition of the patient as well as the physical; the results are not only physical disorder and loss of physical strength, but moral derangement, loss of moral power, and weakening of moral control; moral coinage, energy, determination, are alike lowered and depressed; add to these the fact that the condition of depression, whether physical or moral, is one very obnoxious to irritation, and we get at once the key to the explanation of the whole phenomena miscalled hysterical. It thus appears that the effects of moral shock may be I. Primary ; acting decisively upon a physical organization which may be sound, or imperfect; or, il. Secondary; being induced by fatigue or some other form of physical depression; or, . . , . III. Emotion, or moral shock may ensue upon physical shock; the latter acting as a predisposing cause. . . . We next see that some persons are more easily affected in this manner than others, and this predisposition may be increased )y