On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in FemalesBrown, Isaac Baker
Science
On the Curability of Certain Forms of Insanity, Epilepsy, Catalepsy, and Hysteria in Females
Brown, Isaac Baker
Clitoridectomy
“When out of doors, great difficulty is experienced in getting her in
again; she wishes to wander away, without aim or purpose. Having given
my opinion to her friends, I was authorized to admit her April 18,
1861. Before she left home, she continued calling out, ‘Take me to a
mad-house! take me quick, or I shall never get well!’ She persisted in
saying ‘she was dead,’ and ‘she felt buried.’ Answers in
monosyllables. Her pupil is contracted and fixed. At night she does
not sleep, and is in such a continual state of excitement that the
attendant cannot sleep with her. Has lost all natural modesty in
manner and speech. Is not blasphemous. Before me is perfectly reserved
and correct in her manner. When I ask questions, she will, after a
pause, answer in monosyllables, or repeat the question over and over
again, as if trying to grasp the meaning and ally her thoughts. Unless
walked about, will stand for hours in one place, gaping, yawning, and
throwing her arms about listlessly. She was in this state when you saw
her, and from what you told me of your experience of the operation and
its results, I was led to infer relief from it in this case, as the
delusion of having died on a certain day was movable and could be
reasoned away; but the heavy oppressed feeling still made her say,
‘But if I am not dead, I am lost, or changed,’ and naturally led back
to the idea. I ascribed the state of her mind to weakening of the
body, and general nervous irritation caused by long-continued reflex
excitation; and I believed that if the source of irritation could be
removed, her mental health would follow as her blood became healthy,
and fit to make reparation.
“I was led to think more of her uterine state from her expression of
pain when she was walked about, and she was reported by the nurse as
always complaining of her back, at the lower part, and of great
tenderness on pressure over the ovaries.
“May 27, 1861. You operated on her, she being under the influence of
chloroform. She was naturally restless afterwards, not understanding
why she was kept in bed. Profuse menstruation came on in the evening,
which had not happened for four months previously, and then always
very scanty and with much pain. Half an ounce of laudanum, with oil,
was rubbed into her chest during four hours; she did not, however,
sleep, but continued moaning all night.
“May 28. Easier, and more herself—takes her food.
“May 29. Slept well last night, without opiates; says she shall now
get well and be able to go home; answers questions more readily, and
makes longer replies. _Pupil dilated and acts slowly._ Her nurse says
she is quite altered in every way, and compares the change in her mind
since the operation to ‘dividing the tightened strings of a fiddle,
and letting them all loose.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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