A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 5 : $b Diseases of the nervous system
Science
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 5 : $b Diseases of the nervous system
Medicine -- Practice
(_i_) Hallucinatory paræsthesiæ are those which are so well defined
and strong as to need the aid of other senses and reasoning to
convince the patient of their unreality. A peculiar example of this is
what occurs after amputation of a limb: for days or weeks the lost
member is felt with the utmost distinctness; the absent fingers or
toes may be moved in imagination and their position described.
(_j_) Delusional paræsthesiæ are such in which the patient (usually
{35} insane), no longer correcting his sensations by the use of other
senses and by reasoning, firmly believes in their reality—_i.e._
externality. For example: in such patients visceral sensations give
rise to the belief that there is a foreign body or an animal inside
the patient, or that parts are misplaced or wrenched and beaten. Pains
are thought to be due to blows received or to the bites of animals or
projectiles thrown upon the patient. With perversions of muscular
sense an insane patient may believe that he is flying or floating in
the air.
In hypochondriasis many of the symptoms complained of are nothing but
paræsthesiæ exaggerated by a morbid state of the mind, and sometimes
created (projected) by expectant attention. The hallucinations of the
insane are in great measure phenomena of this group, the projections,
though special and common, never being so strong and definite as to
acquire apparent objectivity.
The auræ of epilepsy are paræsthesiæ. For example: a sensation in the
epigastrium preceding a fit indicates an irritation at the origin of
the vagus nerve and its projection as a subjective sensation at the
distribution of the nerve. An auditory or visual aura similarly
represents a discharge or projection from the acoustic and visual
cortical areas respectively.
In most cases of malingering, and in some cases of so-called railway
spine, the symptoms so loudly complained of belong to the two classes
of hyperæsthesiæ and paræsthesiæ; they are undemonstrable and
non-measurable; only the patient himself can vouch for their reality.
A diagnosis in such cases, without objective symptoms indicating
well-known lesions, should be very reserved.
ANÆSTHESIA, or loss of sensibility, may exist in every degree, from
one so slight as to be hardly demonstrable by delicate tests to the
most absolute loss of all feeling. It manifests itself in various
modes corresponding to the normal physiological varieties of
sensibility; in most cases the loss of feeling involves all of these,
but in others they are separately affected, and we observe the
following types, pure or combined:
(_a_) Tactile Anæsthesia. The capacity to perceive superficial and
gentle impressions upon the skin and mucous membrane, and the ability
to locate and separate such impressions, may be lost, while other
modes of sensibility remain normal.
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