An Analytical compendium of the various branches of medical science : for the use and examination of students / by John Neill and Francis Gurney Smith.
- Neill, John, 1819-1880.
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An Analytical compendium of the various branches of medical science : for the use and examination of students / by John Neill and Francis Gurney Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
974/982 (page 972)
![CHOREA. G'his disease is popularly named St. Yitus's dance, Chorea Sancii fiti; the French call it the dance of St. Guy; and the Germans, the dance of St. Weit. Exciting causes.—The most common are, intestinal irritation from worms or morbid accumulations, and fright. It may also be caused by injuries to the nervous system from blows or falls; by suppression of eruptions, or vicarious discharges ] by rheumatic metastasis to the membranes of the spinal cord; by violent mental emotions; by exces- sive venery; by masturbation, &c. Symjptoms. — Generally speaking, convulsive movements, or rather twitches, of the fingers and muscles of the face are first observed ; after a short time, the convulsive movements become more marked ; strange contortions of the features take place ; the disease extends to the voluntary muscles of all parts of the body, and frequently those of the lower extremities are so continually excited that the patient appears to be dancing, which makes his gait very unsteady; he is chiefly afi^ected when he is most desirous to control his actions. The disease is sometimes confined to one side of the body, or to a single part, as the face, a leg, or an arm ; the muscles are also affected with a sensation of pricking, creeping, or of numbness. At first there is no constitutional derangement, there being no fever, and all the functions being properly performed, with the exception of the bowels being torpid; but after the disease has continued some time, the general health becomes impaired, and occasionally the mental faculties suffer. This affection is much more common in the female than the male, the proportion being, according to the best authorities, three of the former to one of the latter. It most frequently appears between the age of seven and fifteen. The nature of the disease is but very little understood; by several writers it is attributed to inflammatory action of some part of the cerebro-spinal axis; most probably it is due to some perverted action of the cerebellum. The seat v>f this disease is quite as obscure as its nature. M. Serres considers the corpora quadrigemina to be the seat of chorea, while MM. Bouillaud and Magendie conceive that it is seated in the cere- bellum, the functions which they ascribe to this organ being those chiefly affected in this disease. Treatment.—This consists in removing morbid secretions and faecal accumulations; in subduing, when evidently present, excited action of the vessels of the spinal cord or brain; and, finally, in rousing the energy of the nervous system. Purgative medicines have been pre- scribed with the best effects in this disease; a full dose of calomel should be giver, at first, and in a few hours after a brisk cathartic ought to be exhibited. Calomel and jalap are a common combination in this disease; and Dr. Hamilton recommends aloetic pills on the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21068987_0974.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
