Observations on Madness and Melancholy: Including Practical Remarks on those Diseases together with Cases and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection — John Shaqi
Observations on Madness and Melancholy: Including Practical Remarks on those Diseases together with Cases and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on DissectionHaslam, John
Science
Observations on Madness and Melancholy: Including Practical Remarks on those Diseases together with Cases and an Account of the Morbid Appearances on Dissection
Haslam, John
Depression, Mental; Melancholy; Psychiatry -- Early works to 1900; Psychology, Pathological
Many of those who are violently disordered will continue particular
actions for a considerable time: some are heard to gingle the chain, with
which they are confined, for hours without intermission; others, who are
secured in an erect posture, will beat the ground with their feet the
greatest part of the day. Upon enquiry of such patients, after they have
recovered, they have assured me that these actions afforded them
considerable relief. We often surprize persons who are supposed free from
any mental derangement, in many strange and ridiculous movements,
particularly if their minds be intently occupied:[7]--this does not
appear to be so much the effect of habit, as of a particular state of
mind.
Among the bodily particularities which mark this disease, may be observed
the protruded, and oftentimes glistening eye, and a peculiar cast of
countenance, which, however, cannot be described. In some, an appearance
takes place which has not hitherto been noticed by authors. This is a
relaxation of the integuments of the cranium, by which they may be
wrinkled, or rather gathered up by the hand to a considerable degree. It
is generally most remarkable on the posterior part of the scalp; as far as
my enquiries have reached, it does not take place in the beginning of the
disease, but after a raving paroxysm of some continuance. It has been
frequently accompanied with contraction of the iris.
On the suggestion of a medical gentleman, I was induced to ascertain the
prevailing complexion and colour of the hair in insane patients. Out of
two hundred and sixty-five who were examined, two hundred and five were of
a swarthy complexion, with dark, or black hair; the remaining sixty were
of a fair skin, and light, brown, or redhaired. What connexion this
proportion may have, with the complexion and colour of the hair of the
people of this country in general, and what alterations may have been
produced by age, or a residence in other climates, I am totally
uninformed.
Of the power which maniacs possess of resisting cold, the belief is
general, and the histories which are on record are truly wonderful: it is
not my wish to disbelieve, nor my intention to dispute them; it is proper,
however, to state that the patients in Bethlem Hospital possess no such
exemption from the effects of severe cold. They are particularly subject
to mortifications of the feet; and this fact is so well established from
former accidents, that there is an express order of the house, that every
patient, under strict confinement, shall have his feet examined morning
and evening in the cold weather by the keeper, and also have them
constantly wrapped in flannel; and those who are permitted to go about,
are always to be found as near to the fire as they can get, during the
winter season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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