Two unique cases of insanity : possibly epileptic / by Theo. W. Fisher.

  • Fisher, Theodore W. (Theodore Willis), 1837-1914.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Two unique cases of insanity : possibly epileptic / by Theo. W. Fisher. 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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    describes them as sometimes preceded by flashes of light and pungent odors which are probably aurse of the senses, implying that these sense centres are implicated in the nervous explosion. She has found her tongue bitten and blood on her pillow indicating an attack of nocturnal epilepsy. With the vertigo there is buzzing in the head, confusion of ideas, transient unconscious- ness and nausea. This description is quite character- istic of petit mcil, and these attacks have at times been very frequent. The last she recollects occurred five months ago, though she recently fainted, as she thinks from the pain of indigestion, and has since fallen in her room bruising her forehead. The existence of hallucinations, is in a measure, cor- roborative of epilepsy. Echeverria states that hallucina- tions exist in eighty-six per cent of cases of epilepsy. The unilateral character of the hallucinations is also interesting being comparatively rare. A few of the most recent writers on insanity casually mention the fact that such cases occur, and Hammond in his last editiou reports a case or two. Dr. Hammond read a paper before the New York Neurological Society recently on unilateral hallucinations presenting four cases including the two in his book. He says Calmeil first noticed this affection. Baillarger reported two cases. The subject was discussed at the Medical Congress at Rouen. It has occurred occasionally in my experience. The following case which I very briefly summarize is interesting in this connection. A man of insane heredity was treated and died at the Boston Lunatic Hospital. He suffered from suicidal melancholia, with hallucinations of sight, and left-sided auditory hallucinations. He had been deaf in the left ear for twenty years. He had hyperaesthesia, giving rise to a delusion of having cow-