The diseases of children / by James Frederic Goodhart.

  • Goodhart, James Frederic, Sir, 1845-1916.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of children / by James Frederic Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    five-ancl-twenty cases of the 141 there was a distinct history of fright, and in six others the child was noticecl to be unusually timid; in other cases the disease commenced after a fit, some esanthem, over- work, &c. Taking the figures of Dr. Starges, See, HiUier, and Peacock with these, we have 670 cases, and 224 of them due to fright or some nervous shock or strain. This, probably, is too low an estimate of mental shock,for of 439 cases tabulated by Dr. Stephen Mackenzie from the Collective Investigation Returns, 222, or 50 per cent., were attributed to causes of this kind. It is worth remark that, although there is in so many cases a definite history of fright, tlie onset after it is often slow, and thus it happens that it is difficult in many cases to see any relation between the supposed cause and the effect; and doubtless, for the same reason, it happens that a cause such as this is at times entirely overlooked. I am disposed to think tliatone frequent cause of fright or nervous shock in children which is liable to be overlooked in this relation is nightmare. Nervous cliildren are very prone to this affection, and nothing is thought of it; but those who have expe- rienced the horroi's of its nocturnal tragedies —the palpitating heart of the awakening, and the ecstatic reUef which is then experienced, as struggling and half vanishing, it is dragged into daylight (Elia)—• will know that, to an unstable nervous system, few things are more fitted to upset the balance and to induce chorea. liheiomatism.—And here too comes in the question of the relation of chorea to rheumatism, because, although in the majority of cases, perliaps, the latter stands to chorea rather as a constitutional element which predisposes, yet in some it precedes the chorea and introduces it, so to speak, and may thus be said to cause it. Of a total of 141 cases, thirty-nine had had rheumatic fever, and fifty more had a history of rheumatism in some of their near relatives. There has been much discussion as to what the