The connection between tuberculosis and insanity / by T.S. Clouston.
- Thomas Clouston
- Date:
- 1863
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The connection between tuberculosis and insanity / by T.S. Clouston. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![head, the brain resumed something like its healthy functions, and the halhiciiiation ceased. We shall now address ourselves to the second question, viz.. What is the effect of the insanity on the tuberculosis ? The duration of life in the cases of tuberculosis, after they had become insane, is shown in the following table. Let it be ob- served that this table does not show the duration of life after their admission into the asylum, but from the first commencement of the _ insanity, except in the few cases in which the duration of the in- sanity before admission into the asylum is not recorded, when the length of time in the asylum is taken. Table X. Males. Female. Total. Died within 1 year after becoming insane 34 32 66 2 yy yy 24 18 42 }] 3 yy yy 11 22 33 yy 4 yy yy 12 16 28 yy 6 yy yy 12 19 31 yy 10 yy yy 20 16 36 yy 20 yy yy 13 15 28 over 20 yy yy 10 8 18 Totals . 136 146 282 It is seen from this that exactly one half of all the cases died within the first three years, about one fourth of them dying within the first year. It is extremely improbable that a predisposition to tuberculosis should have been engendered within three years in those cases, and still less likely that a predisposition and a large actual deposit could have taken place during that time. Allowing that, in a certain number of cases, the deposit of the tubercle, and the com- mencement of the insanity, were naere coincidences, yet it is impossible that this could have happened in one half the number. We liave already seen that there were 75 cases in whom the insanity was sui generis, and only to be accounted for by the tuber- culosis, which manifested itself in them all within five years of their admission into the asylum ; but the foregoing table would seem to in- dicate tliat in even more than those cases of phthisical mania was the tuberculosis connected directly with the insanity. About two thirds of aU the cases of tuberculosis had died before they were six years insane. Many continental physiologists and pathologists, among whom may be reckoned Van der Kolk, Durand Fardel, Engel of Prague, Schiff, and Brown-Sequard,* attribute nmch importance, in the * See Van der Kolk's Case of Atrophy of Left Ueniisiihere of Urain, ' Syden. Soc. Trans.,' p. 170.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21477085_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
