The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2).

  • Jones, I. G. (Ichabod Gibson), 1807-1857.
Date:
1853-54
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American eclectic practice of medicine (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    illusory character, requires a constant effort to retain the con- viction that it is not real. Thus the case progresses with an increase of the deceptive feelings and mental frauds, until the fancies become, in the belief of the patient, almost fixed reali- ties, though even yet he may not be so entirely lost to a per- ception of surrounding circumstances but that, by the special direction of a friend in whom he has entire confidence, the illusion may still be perceived and acknowledged. This con- sciousness, however, is transitory, and the same illusory ob- jects are again observed with an increased conviction that they are physically present. While this state of mind con- tinues patients can generally be diverted for a short time, and may converse with entire propriety on subjects of interest, or the ordinary occurrences of the time. These lucid intervals soon become more transient, and the patient will recur more frequently to the hallucinations of his diseased mind, as if they were realities, until they become the sole subjects of his thoughts and conversation, and strange fixtures, guns, ser- pents, witches, fiends, fiery dragons, and other fearful things assume a real and substantial existence in his imagination. Then the disease may be said to be fully formed. But there is no uniform manifestation of these mental fancies. While some individuals occupy their entire time in brushing off, in a most disturbed and violent manner, bugs, insects, and rep- tiles, first upon one arm, or one side, and then upon the other, and shrink from their approach with horror and disgust, or, as they stealthily creep upon the person, dislodge them with a vigorous blow ; others have fearful contests with witches or fiends, and manifest the most anxious and haggard expres- sion of countenance that can be conceived. Then again, the poor and distressed subject of this morbid and hallucinated condition becomes the object of an unrelenting and wicked persecution, and is hunted for his life by those who should be his friends, but whose animosity, excited by an unintentional injury, will be satiated only with due revenge. He sees them skulking behind his bureau, or under his bed, armed with weapons of death, and he the intended victim of their hatred and exasperation. With profound earnestness, and almost