An inquiry into the influence of libidinous excess on the causation of locomotor ataxy or tabes dorsalis / by Thomas Laycock, M.D.

  • Laycock, Thomas, 1812-1876.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the influence of libidinous excess on the causation of locomotor ataxy or tabes dorsalis / by Thomas Laycock, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    5/20
    INTO THE INFLUENCE OF LIBIDINOUS EXCESS ON THE CAUSATION OF LOCOMOTOR ATAXY 0\\ TABES DORSALIS. It is not improbable that too much importance is sometimes given to sexual excesses as a cause of the neuroses classed under the term tabes dorsalis, to the exclusion of equally important and perhaps more direct causes; but 1 think there are signs of a ten- dency to the other extreme of opinion, more especially with regard to locomotor ataxy, and a danger of thus overlooking a very impor- tant practical point. Much depends upon the notion people have of what constitutes excess, which must be always relative, and whether it be looked upon as an exciting, or immediate, or a predis- posing and remote cause. It is not uncommon to find diseases of the nervous system insidiously developed from some remote cause, as an injury to a nerve, and so with that under consideration. A great excess for a few days only, acting like a shock, may manifest its consequences in the nervous system at a long distant subsequent period. It is of importance to distinguish locomotor ataxy induced in this way from the spermatorrhea, nervousness, and nervous debility that result from solitary vice, since the sensory pudic nerves are differently excited. To this difference, indeed, may be attributed, in some instances at least, the differences in the results. In locomotor ataxy the degeneration seems to counneuce with the sensory ganglia and posterior roots of the spinal