Fat and blood : an essay on the treatment of certain forms of neurasthenia and hysteria / [S. Weir Mitchell].

  • Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir), 1829-1914.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Fat and blood : an essay on the treatment of certain forms of neurasthenia and hysteria / [S. Weir Mitchell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Nothing is more common in practice than to see a young woman who falls below the health- standard, loses color and plumpness, is tired all the time, by and by has a tender spine, and soon or late enacts the whole varied drama of hysteria. As one or other set of symptoms is prominent she gets the appropriate label, and sometimes she continues to exhibit only the single phase of nervous exhaustion or of spinal irritation. Far more often she runs the gauntlet of nerve-doc- tors, gynaecologists, plaster jackets, braces, water- treatment, and all the fantastic variety of other cures. It will be worth while to linger here a little and more sharply delineate the classes of cases I have just named. I see every week—almost every day—women who when asked what is the matter reply, “ Oh, I have nervous exhaustion.” When further questioned, they answer that everything tires them. Now, it is vain to speak of all of these cases as hysterical, or as merely mimetic. It is quite sure that in the graver examples exercise quickens the pulse curiously, the tire shows in the face, or sometimes diarrhoea or nausea fol- lows exertion, and though while under excite-