Neurographs : a series of neurological studies, cases, and notes / Editor William Browning.

Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Neurographs : a series of neurological studies, cases, and notes / Editor William Browning. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    19/88 (page 97)
    'eight years, nervous excitement in a marked degree al- 'most invariaby attends upon every disease these people 'may suffer from, although they may not when in health be over-nervous. 2. The tendency to insanity, and sometimes that form of insanity leads to suicide, is marked. I know of several instances of suicide of people suffering from this form of chorea, or who belonged to families in which the disease existed. As the disease progresses the mind be- comes more or less impaired, in many amounting to in- sanity, while in others mind and body both gradually fail until death relieves them of their sufferings. At present I know of two married men, whose wives are living, and who are constantly making love to some young lady, not seeming to be aware that there is any impro- priety in it. They are suffering from chorea to such an extent that they can hardly walk, and would be thought, by a stranger, to be intoxicated. They are men of about fifty years of age, but never let an opportunity to flirt with a girl go past unimproved. The effect is ridiculous in the extreme. 3. Its third peculiarity is its coming on as a grave 'disease, only in adult life. I do not know of a single case that has shown any marked signs of chorea before the age of thirty or forty years, while those who pass the fortieth year without symptoms of the disease are seldom attacked. It begins as an ordinary chorea might begin, by the irregular and spasmodic action of certain muscles, as of the face, arms, etc. These movements gradually increase, when muscles heretofore unaffected take on the spasmodic action, until every muscle in the body becomes 'affected (excepting the involuntary ones), and the poor patient presents a spectacle w^hich is anything but pleasing