Hysteria or pithiatism, and reflex nervous disorders in the neurology of war / by J. Babinski ... and J. Froment ... with a proscript by the authors; translated by J.D. Rolleston ... ed., with a preface, by E. Farquhar Buzzard ; with 37 figures and 8 plates.

  • Babinski, J. (Joseph), 1857-1932
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hysteria or pithiatism, and reflex nervous disorders in the neurology of war / by J. Babinski ... and J. Froment ... with a proscript by the authors; translated by J.D. Rolleston ... ed., with a preface, by E. Farquhar Buzzard ; with 37 figures and 8 plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    during a relatively calm period, among troops in a rest camp. In a communication made with Major Plisson to a medical meeting of the 2nd Army in March 1915 he drew the attention of his colleagues to the extreme rarity of hysterical accidents seen at the front, showing the similarity of this observation with those made before the war (e. g., in hospitals, or the enquiry into the earthquake at Messina, v. p. 23). This communication did not provoke any con¬ tradiction. It is important to note that the evidence we have brought forward has met with no opposition. At the front, therefore, under conditions likely to cause the most violent emotions various emotional disturbances may be observed, but no hysterical symptoms have been seen to develop on the occasion of an emotion.1 The results of the observations have been quite different in places distant from the firing-line. At nine to twelve miles from the front lines in the sanitary units in the line of communication hysterical mani¬ festations are frequent. This fact has been the motive for creating neurological centres at the front for the special purpose of retaining persons suffering from disorders of this kind in order to submit them immediately to psychotherapy, which is all the more likely to be successful the less it is delayed. Pithiatic phenomena are still more frequent in neurological centres at the base among soldiers who have spent many months in various hospital units, but their number varies considerably comparing one centre with another. Considering the time of onset of these phenomena one is not justified in eliminating suggestion, which is all the more likely to intervene 1 Information supplied by other medical officers at the front with whom we had the opportunity of discussing this question has been entirely unanimous : e. g., Major L. Levy and 0. Monod, who were attached to ambulances engaged near the firing-line, assured us that they had never seen any symptoms resembling hysteria.