When she had attained her nineteenth year she commenced to suffer
from attacks of anguish of some hours' duration, but disappearing
under the influence of sleep, in which she felt as though her
breathing were going to stop and she herself were about to die. On
the termination of these sensations some eighteen months later,
their place was taken by convulsive movements of the tongue, lips,
neck, trunk, left arm, diaphragm, pharynx, and muscles of
respiration. These consisted of clonic rhythmical twitches, each
preceded by an inspiration and succeeded by an expiratory
ejaculation, repeated fifty or sixty times a minute. During the
seizure the tongue was protruded and deviated to the left, the left
arm was raised, the head and trunk bent down and forward. All day
long the movements were continued with unflagging regularity. Rest
in bed was without effect, but they were dispelled by sleep.
Distraction and occupation exercised an inhibitory influence on
them, whereas voluntary control was both feeble and fleeting. In
the condition of the patient there was nothing else abnormal with
the exception of slow, monotonous, and syllabic speech. Her mental
development was perhaps a little immature, but signs of hysteria
were lacking, and all attempts at treatment by suggestion and
hypnotism failed of their object. Death ensued from pulmonary
tuberculosis.
De Buck observes that while the action of some of the muscular groups
involved in the rhythmic spasm was, so to speak, purposive, the whole
did not constitute any known, conscious, and logical movement. It may
have been a species of tic, but the rhythmical sequence of the
convulsions imparts to it a quite peculiar character.
ATTACKS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account