Contributions to the study of shell shock : being an account of certain disorders of cutaneous sensibility / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
1916?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Contributions to the study of shell shock : being an account of certain disorders of cutaneous sensibility / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/28 (page 17)
    slept there.” He remembered the various hospitals to which he had been sent, and the convalescent camp in which he had spent five or six weeks as a mute. He was sent back by me to his unit. I have since heard about him from his regimental medical officer, who wrote four months later: “ I have since seen Private- several times at sick parade, complaining of vague and trivial matters, such as pains in the legs, pains in the back, and headaches. At his last appearance on sick parade he complained that his varicocele was giving him considerable discomfort.” His healthy appearance and stubborn manner, his absolute mutism, and inability to cough, the manner of his recovery, the absence of stupor, amnesia, tremor, or any other signs of shock, certain discrepancies between his written and (later) spoken history, his general behaviour while in hospital and after, all throw grave suspicion on the absolute genuine¬ ness of the patient’s condition. But none of these can be regarded as certain guides. Functional disorders are apt occasionally to simulate malingering, just as at other times they simulate organic lesions. How even the most experienced may be deceived is shown in the following case :— Case 22 (Case number 450).—Private, aged 26, with one year’s service and three months’ service in France, admitted into a base hospital for deaf-mutism of nine weeks’ standing. He wrote : “ I should be very happy if you can do anything for me. I cannot give a very clear account of what happened, as it is some time since. I remember retiring from Hill- with some more to some trenches, and in the open we were shelled and I lost touch with our chaps or else they were killed. I remember a great concussion and finding myself on the ground, and a soldier dragged me up and we ran for the trench. I was very thirsty and I ran down the trench to get some water. I met one of our chaps and tried to ask him for some, and I could not make him understand. He only smiled at me. The man who picked me up took me to an officer who was sitting on the edge of the trench and tried to make me understand, and then he sent me with this man to a dressing station, and from there I have been to different places, the names of which I do not know, except the last place, No.-Convalescent Camp. I have been there about two months .” He appeared an honest lad, anxious to get well. He wrote that he could hear me, but could not understand what I said. When I whistled he wrote, “ I think I can hear a drone.” He himself could not whistle, although he “ used to whistle as a youngster.” He could not protrude his tongue without first pulling down his lips. He could move it from side to side. He was anaesthetised on the following day, but he did not pass through a stage of excitement, and failed to regain his speech. He was evacuated to England. Three months later he wrote me the following “confi¬ dential” letter from “a convalescent home” in England: “ Sir,—I regret very much to have to inform you that I was imposing upon you. I may state that I was physically unfit for the Front. During the whole time of training