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
The tearful ground gave out wind
which flashed forth a crimson light
that conquered all my senses;
And I fell, like one who is seized with sleep.
Inferno, Canto III, 130-136.
Bombardment; shell explosion nearby: Mania; death in 24 hours. The
AUTOPSY showed superficial punctate hemorrhages of brain and congestion
of pia mater. CAUSE OF DEATH--small bulbar hemorrhage, congestion
of veins, and nerve-cell changes of a local and differential nature
(chromatolysis of vago-accessorius nucleus). SHELL-SHOCK SYMPTOMS due
to capillary anemia and chromatolysis of various regions.
=Case 197.= (MOTT, November, 1917.)
A soldier became rather nervous at the Somme, and later underwent
intense bombardment for some four hours, February 22, 4 to 8 P.M.
Although he said he “could not stand it much longer” he carried on
for twelve hours more when perhaps six shells went over, February 23.
One of the shells burst about ten feet away, just behind the dugout.
The first day of the bombardment he was tremulous and depressed;
later coarsely tremulous in the limbs. February 23 there was crying
and inability to walk or do any sort of work. Questions were not
answered. The pupils were dilated. The evening of February 23 the man
was admitted to the field ambulance in acute mania, shouting: “Keep
them back! Keep them back!” He was quieted with morphine and chloroform
and slept well during the night. There were at least two hypodermic
injections of morphine in the ambulance. He woke up the morning of
February 24 apparently well, but suddenly died.
The autopsy showed small scratches on the anterior chest wall, but
otherwise no sign of external violence. Both lungs were edematous;
the left lower lobe showed a considerable hemorrhage. The heart was
enlarged and the right side dilated. The liver was somewhat congested.
The kidneys were small, but otherwise showed no gross change (urine
without sugar or albumin).
CHART 7
EFFECTS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVE SHELLS
EMOTIONAL
COMMOTIONAL
LESIONAL
After Vincent and others
CHART 8
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