Clinical lectures on Neurasthenia.

  • Savill, Thomas Dixon, 1856-1910.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on Neurasthenia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    ness and prostration, lasting from one to three hours. He is affected thus about every two or three weeks. He was in a remarkably nervous condition, and was terrilily appre- hensive lest the battery should be appUed to him when he came here. I first treated him in the usual way for his gastric trouble, giving him a mixture of rhubarb, soda, and cardamoms, and then gave him bromide of ammonium, 10 grs. three times a day, and he is steadily improving. His malady has lasted for two or three years, and for two or three years before that he had had gastric troubles inci- dental to his occupation, which is that of a cook. Probably his indoor mode of Ufe has something to do w^ith his attacks, but the main cause undoubtedly is dyspepsia, vrhich has resulted in a malnutrition of the body generally, and the nervous system in particular. It is curious that he has had no headache, which is so common a symptom in these cases. As I question the patient, you will see that these points all come out; he is a sallow, unhealthy-looking man, but he presents no physical signs, and his viscera, other than the stomach, are healthy. The third case is that of an engine-fitter, named A. H—, who is 32 years of age ; his illness commenced with a malady which very frequently precedes and determines CASE III. functional disorders of the nervous system- influenza. He has Hved a very healthy life, and was never nervous until two years ago, when he had m- fluenza, complicated, it was beheved, with congestion of the brain ; and since then he has suffered from general weakness and giddiness, always on going into the open air, and singing in the ears almost constantly. He also has attacks (two or three a week) which he will describe to you himself. He says an attack begins like a wave of prickling, commencing in the head and runnmg down the trunk and legs, chiefly on the right side. This is followed by a feeling of fulness at the top of the head, which seems as if the blood will burst through the nose; and finally there is a cold feeling down the right arm and the right leg. Gentlemen, the hemiplegic limitation of these subjective symptoms is a circumstance of the greatest interest. Ihey are obviously of vascular origin, for he assures us (and he is