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
A soldier, Colonial, 29, was twice in the 6th Army neurological
centre. The first time, February, 1916, he was under observation for
astasia-abasia, having been invalided twice for this disease,--once
in 1915. This man had had syphilis at 21, and was then taken care of
at Saint-Louis Hospital and at Cochin. A volunteer for the duration
of war, September, 1914, he had intermittent disorders of station and
walking, which caused his invaliding January, 1915. As the trouble
stopped, he asked to go back to the front in September, but the same
difficulty reappeared with fatigue, and he was sent to the army
neurological centre. When standing, there was a ceaseless trembling of
the whole body but especially of the legs, with tendency to propulsion.
In walking also, there was a trepidant abasia, sometimes dizziness, and
even a sudden fall. Standing on one foot he trembled and fell.
Examined on his back, muscular strength was found intact in all limbs,
and there was no trembling or incoördination or intention tremor in
the performance of any movements, though there was a slight trembling
of the raised fingers and hand. Reflexes were normal. The right pupil
was dilated; the left pupil reacted sluggishly. There were lateral
nystagmiform movements to the left. Caloric nystagmus appeared from
the right ear in 15 seconds, from the left in 30. Rotatory nystagmus
appeared in 35 seconds on both sides. Lumbar puncture yielded a fluid
with a slight lymphocytosis; albumin, .3 grams; chloride, 7.30; sugar
normal.
Rest in bed improved the astasia-abasia, and the man was sent back to
his corps, February 20, 1916. He came back March 16, having had a dizzy
spell, with suffocation feeling and a fall, whereupon the trepidant
astasia-abasia had reappeared. There were none of the so-called
defensive reflexes. The neuromuscular excitability of gastrocnemii was
less on the right than on the left. A von Graefe sign was sometimes
found; no diplopia save on looking far to right.
Lay reflections on syphilis: Suicidal attempts.
=Case 32.= (COLIN and LAUTIER, July, 1917.)
A man was called to the auxiliaries at the outbreak of the war, and
served as stretcher-bearer at the Marne. He then became an attendant at
the Grand-Palais. Acquiring gonorrhoea, he was cared for but he grew
depressed. The blood was examined and the W. R. found positive. The
physician immediately made known the result without circumlocution,
and knowing vaguely that the W. R. meant syphilis, the patient felt an
irresistible impulse to suicide, and cut his throat. It seems that he
had often before said that if he got syphilis he would kill himself.
Recovering from his wound, he was invalided to Villejuif, Sept. 19,
1916, breathing through a cannula and responding to questions in
writing. He had always been a nervous and emotional man, a farmer in
Auvergne; he was married and the father of several children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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