Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane : For the year ending 31st December 1871.

  • Royal Edinburgh Asylum
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the insane : For the year ending 31st December 1871. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    46/56 page 30
    Three patients are entered in the above Table as having died in consequence of the constitutional effects of mental disorder. One of these, a lady, aet. 47, had previously been insane ; on the present occasion, on admission, she presented symptoms of great mental ex¬ citement, and seemed to be influenced by intense fear : she crouched in a corner of her bed, gibbering and muttering, with looks and ges¬ tures expressive of the utmost apprehension. Narcotics and sedatives exercised little or no control over her disorder, and the snatches of sleep which occurred to her produced no tranquillising effect. On this patient’s admission an accurate physical examination could not be made, on account of the alarm that any attempt to do so caused her; but neither at the first, nor during the subsequent course of her malady, did any symptoms of specific disease present themselves, apart from the exhaustive effects of the mental disorder. After lasting about a week, the mental symptoms suddenly disap¬ peared, leaving the patient in full possession of her faculties, but excessively weak. Huge abscesses formed in the cellular tissue in various parts of her body, from the exhaustive effects of which she died a week after the cessation of the mental symptoms. The condition of one of the other two patients, a male, is succinctly described by the two following extracts of his case, as recorded in the case-books:—First, on admission—“ This patient labours under Asthenic Insanity, displaying itself in physical restlessness and mental excitement.” Second, a week after admission—£< Has been very sleepless; mutters in a continual state of heavy delirium.” Towards the end of his illness the mental symptoms disappeared ; but in this case death occurred even more speedily than in the for¬ mer. After the disappearance of the symptoms of mental disorder, bis extremities became cold, vomiting ensued, and the patient rapidly sank and died. The salient features of these cases much resemble each other. On admission no symptoms of special bodily disease were present in either case, although the general constitutional tone was very much depressed. In both case.3 the symptoms presented were in¬ tense physical and mental disquiet, and in both the symptoms of the mental disorder disappeared before death. Finally, death in each instance resulted not from any specific disease supervening on the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3