On the study of the hand for indications of local and general disease / by Edward Blake.

  • Blake, Edward T. (Edward Thomas), 1842-1905
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the study of the hand for indications of local and general disease / by Edward Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/198 page 58
    § XIII. OCCUPATION NEUROSES. This group of Trade Diseases, which are sometimes charac- terised by spasm, such as Writer's Cramp, and sometimes by paralysis, as Scrivener's Palsy, may be conveniently con- sidered here. Writer's Cramp.—-In a masterly essay, entitled Nervous Affections of the Hand, [Smith Elder, 1897], Dr. Vivian Poore (at p. 26) has shown that scrivener's disease is not a mere affection of the hand alone. The term Writer's Cramp by no means represents a single pathological entity; for any disease that affects the muscles of the right side of the trunk, or the right upper extremity, may be mistaken for writer's cramp. This is more especially true when there is impairment of the power of prehension of a small object, like an ordinary pen. Dr. Vivian Poore has done good work in bringing it home to the reader that he must have the anatomy of the upper extremity, at his own finger-tips. Not the anatomy of an ordinary Manual—that is not nearly good enough—but a knowledge of the careful dissections of H. St. John Brooks and the minute observations of Duchenne de Boulogne. Dr. Vivian Poore has brought the latter within the reach of the busiest practitioner, by rendering Duchenne's famous Observations on the Hand into fine fluent English, in his Selections from the Clinical Works of Dr. Duchenne; published by the New Sydenham Society in 1883. Should we be consulted as to an occupation neurosis, such as writer's palsy, pianist's cramp, sawyer's cramp, tailor's cramp, milker's cramp, telegraphist's cramp, or hammerman's palsy, a scrupulous search should be instituted for hemiplegia, either recent or remote; whilst overlooked left-handedness should not be forgotten. Dr. Poore found amongst his three hundred cases, one
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