Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and HysteriaMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Science
Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Hysteria; Neurasthenia; Rest
"I tried in vain to wean her from her anodynes, and failed altogether in
doing her any good, although many remedies were resorted to, and various
modes of treatment adopted. Finally, in sheer despair, I put her to bed,
and began your treatment of rest, with electricity, massage, and
frequent feeding. The first trace of improvement showed itself in a
greater self-control, and in a lessening of her aches and pains. Next,
smaller doses of the anodyne were needed, until it was wholly withheld.
Then she began to pick up an appetite, which, towards the close of the
treatment, became so keen that, between three good meals every day, she
drank several goblets of milk and of beef-tea. At the outset I had
stipulated for six weeks of this treatment, and it was with reluctance
that my patient yielded to my wish. But when the time was up she had
become so impressed with the wonderful benefits she had received and was
receiving, that she begged to have the treatment continued for two weeks
more. At the end of that time she had gained at least thirty pounds in
weight, and had lost every pain and ache. Her night-terrors, which I
forgot to mention as one of her distressing symptoms, had wholly
disappeared, and she could sleep from nine to ten hours at a stretch. I
now sent her into the country, where she is continuing to mend, and is
astonishing her friends by her scrambles up and down the steep hills.
"Such were the salient features of this case; and I can assure you that
I was as much impressed by the happy results of the treatment as were a
host of anxious and doubting friends.
"Very faithfully yours,
"WM. GOODELL."
* * * * *
Miss C., an interesting woman, æt. 26, at the age of 20 passed through a
grave trial in the shape of nursing her mother through a typhoid fever.
Soon after, a series of calamities deprived her of fortune, and she
became, for support, a clerk, and did for two years eight hours' work
daily. Under these successive strains her naturally sturdy health gave
way. First came pain in the back, then growing paleness, loss of flesh,
and unending sense of tire. Her work, which was a necessity, was of
course kept up, steadily at first, but was soon interfered with by
increase of the menstrual flow, with unusual pain and persistent
ovarian tenderness. Very soon she began to drop her work for a day at a
time. Then came an increasing asthenopia, with evening headaches, until
her temper changed and became capricious and irritable. When I saw her,
she had been forced to abandon all labor, and had been treated by an
accomplished gynæcologist, and was said to be cured of a prolapsus uteri
and of extensive ulceration, despite which relief she gained nothing in
vigor and endurance and got back neither color nor flesh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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