On chorea and other allied movement disorders of early life / by Octavius Sturges.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On chorea and other allied movement disorders of early life / by Octavius Sturges. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    yet further upon what authority any particular method of muscular conduct is insisted on rather than another as being its proper pattern, all declensions from which are to be regarded as morbid. No one will deny, I suppose, that the several conditions of consciousness find a ready and accurate expression in the move- ments and attitudes of the body. So peremptory, indeed, is this union between the mind and the muscles that the term ' voluntary' commonly given to the latter is only partially applicable. It is true that the more violent gestures get subdued and toned down by education, and that custom and imitation supply a certain number of conventional and meaningless movements, yet the muscles are not the less expressive on that account. We are seldom deceived as to the nature of emotion on account of the effort of repression which is used. On the contrary, we can see and measure the force of both. The monotony and uniformity of civilised life tend of course to reduce these motor phenomena to a minimum. The full display of passion or emotion is rare, and when it occurs the sympathy of the observer is so far enlisted as to divert attention from the mere muscular condition apart from what it expresses. Thus the several modes of response to as many different states of consciousness, the spasm of horror, the restlessness of embarrass- ment, the tremor of fear and sudden disaster, violent and dis- composing as they are physically considered, pass without notice, or are noticed only for the meaning they convey, just as the movements Of the tongue and lips are not considered in themselves or apart from the words they utter. What would be really surprising would be the absence of these several emotion movements, or still more, the expression of any one emotion by means of muscular move- ments such as we are accustomed to associate with another. Thus while many phenomena of movement which are involuntary and disabling are readily accepted as amongst the natural endow- ments of the individual no less than are the acts which are
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