Hysteria : the hysterical constitution or temperament : with suggestions as to its pathology and treatment / by William Camps.

  • Camps, William.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hysteria : the hysterical constitution or temperament : with suggestions as to its pathology and treatment / by William Camps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    in severity of degree. More than this, not only have they greatly multiplied, but perhaps it is not saying too much to assert, that, even at this present time, they are greatly upon the increase. From whatever cause or causes the increase in this class of disea.ses may arise, and it would not be a diffi- cult task to point out some amongst others, as tending to produce them, the fact, as it appears to me, remains indis- putable. Some physicians afifirm that formerly human beings, men, women, and children, were generally stronger and more robust, and less frequently attacked with disease than they are at the present time; in fact according to the opinion of such, there was a less amount of disease as well relative as absolute amongst mankind at large. However this may have been, whether true or not, the cau.ses which tend to produce diseases of one or more parts of the nervous system have greatly increased, and it is much to be feared that this increase does but keep pace, pari passu, with the everyday increase of population and of progressive civilisation. Especially is this the case as regards residents in large towns and citie.s, in which the daily toils and burden- some anxieties of life make increasing demands upon the nervous energy and brain-power of all engaged in the arduous struggle for life and social position. The older physicians do not, in their records of diseases, treat at length of diseases of the nerves ; in fact, paralysis and convulsions of more or fewer parts of the body would seem to be all, or nearly all, the diseases of this class that they recognised as such, although a careful and attentive perusal of their writings will show, that they had observed and recorded many diseases to which they affixed no names, and to which they did not, or could not, assign appropriate causes ; diseases which, at the present day, by the aid of a more en- lightened physiology and pathology, we know to belong to the class of nervous diseases ; the phenomena they present to our observation indicating most clearly to the intelligent practitioner, some lesion in the functions if not in the organism, of the nervous structure of the human frame. The chief object aimed at, and which we design to keep steadily in view, is to submit to the notice of the readers of this essay, whatever, up to the present time, is received as truth, in relation to the physiology, pathology, and treatment of the disease under consideration ; whatever may be reasona- bly dictated by an experience, now of some years’ standing; and whatever may be considerately suggested by d priori reasoning, as probable to be of service in the remedial manage-