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

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    normal spatial threshold on the left side ; on the right side, of course, the threshold was unobtainable. With eyes closed he distinguished a penny from a watch successively held in the right hand, terming the former “sharp,” the latter “a piece of glass”; he named them at once when held in the left hand. The vibration sense was wholly lost on the right side, save on the right temple, where it was feeble as compared with the normal left side. He failed to recognise in which direction his right hallux was moved, and failed to appreciate passive movements of his right arm ; nevertheless, he was able to imitate with his right arm the position in which his left had been placed. Sensi¬ bility to temperature not examined. Tested for smell and taste, he showed complete right hemi-anosmia and hemi-agusia to all smells and tastes ; left side, normal. The left ear heard normally, the right was almost completely deaf. The sound of a tuning-fork placed on the vertex was localised in the left ear. Oboscopic examination revealed no abnormality. The right visual field was limited to the fovea, the left was normal. The visual acuity of the right eye was 4/18, of the left 4/6. The right eye could only read Jaeger type No. 14, whereas the left read No. 2. Case 11 (Case-number 94).—Sergeant, aged 32, with 11 years’ service and 8 months’ service in France. Was admitted to a base hospital for inquiry into his mental condition, he having been charged with malingering. For seven years before the war he had been teaching in an army school. On arrival in France he had at once found the heavy marching too much for him. He had fainted several times during the retreat from Mons and during the fighting on the Aisne, where he had reported sick for dysentery. He stated that on that occasion he went to a field ambu¬ lance for two days, and that owing to the bursting of shells, one of which struck the ground and knocked him into a ditch, the ambulance was forced to move for shelter into a cave. Since then he had suffered from tremor which, he stated, was much worse when he moved his limbs or was addressed, or when he felt himself watched. After dis¬ charge from hospital he had been employed for three months as despatch rider on a motor-cycle, but he lost his nerve for this work and was then given the duty of taking charge of fatigue parties. Again he had found the work— “long distances and long standing”—too much for him. Finally, the charge of malingering was preferred against him. He had always been a total abstainer. The patient was a very nervous, delicate-looking man, with widely dilated pupils, prominent eyeballs, a pro¬ nounced tremor of the right arm, and a pulse frequency of 102. No signs of goitre. The tremor was markedly diminished when he was left alone, and was increased, extending to the head, when he stood, and to the left arm