Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918Southard, Elmer Ernest
History
Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems : $b Presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case histories from the war literature, 1914-1918
Southard, Elmer Ernest
War neuroses; World War, 1914-1918 -- Medical care; World War, 1914-1918 -- Psychological aspects
Upon examination, this Tunisian gunner showed contraction of visual
fields, poor color vision, and general hypalgesia. During examination,
the man seized the needle and plunged it deeply under his skin,
exclaiming that a prophet felt nothing and that he could be cut into
bits without feeling pain.
It seems that he had had divine visions from early childhood. In his
youth he had once gone to a mountain near his home and talked with
Mohammed and Allah. Of course, Allah did not appear in human form, but
he appeared like a ball or a wheel of fire, slowly turning. Mohammed
was a tall man, with a long white beard, his eyes darting rays of
fire, and his forehead bearing a gleaming bright body. Allah was heard
talking to Mohammed. Orders were given concerning the sun and stars.
Subterranean treasures were displayed, as well as Paradise full of
yellow, blue, and green houris, transparent, such that, when food was
taken, it could be seen going down their throats. Hell too was visible,
and the devil very tall and black, an eye behind and another on top.
There were also many genii--little men who climbed over the Tunisian’s
body. Sometimes in dreams, Allah carried him to all countries of the
earth. It was hard to tell whether these effects were hallucinations
or vivid imaginings. The Tunisian had been wounded after several months
of service by two bullets in one day: the one causing an insignificant
lip-wound; the other entering the skull behind. After several months
the bullet had been extracted by trephining.
His further history was obscured by the fact that he wove delusional
elements into his story. He said, for example, that he had been
court-martialed, though there was no evidence that this was a fact. It
is probable that after his wound the patient in a delirium felt that he
was going to be shot. The visual hallucinations were very interesting,
being Lilliputian. He would see three or four hundred Tunisian gunners
walking along, knee-high or taller. Sometimes they all would stop and
aim at him. He also showed micromegalopsia, real objects changing their
height under his eyes. Both the Lilliputian hallucinations and the
micromegalopsia dated from the trauma to the skull. There was no change
whatever in the mystical delusions concerning Allah and Mohammed. These
he had before the trauma.
Meningococcus meningitis with apparent recovery: Dementing psychosis.
=Case 107.= (MAIXANDEAU, 1915.)
A soldier in the Heavy Artillery, 42, developed occipital headaches and
Kernig’s sign, December 27, 1915.
December 31, at the Hôtel-Dieu, he showed myosis, slight photophobia,
meningitic tâche, temperature 39.6, pulse 84, heart sounds dull. Lumbar
puncture: hemorrhagic fluid.
January 1, the headache was intense, neck stiffness increased, Kernig’s
sign less marked; morning and afternoon temperature 39.2. Lumbar
puncture yielded hypertensive cloudy fluid and 30 cubic centimeters of
serum were administered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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