General paralysis : a critical review of the literature of the subject, to which is appended an analysis of the case of John S. Blackburn, in which insanity was alleged as a means of defense / by D.A. Morse.

Morse, D. A. (David Appleton), 1840-1891

Date:: [1874]

Credit: General paralysis : a critical review of the literature of the subject, to which is appended an analysis of the case of John S. Blackburn, in which insanity was alleged as a means of defense / by D.A. Morse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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$come coniplibated with general paralysis, this being their view of the nature of the disease. Hence, regarding the disease in all forms, under all consider- fttions, Ave say a idhoj.ity declares Jjeyand dbsputc or contrmiermj, that genercd 2iarabjHis may he inherited, •ab the last degree of de- generacy transmitted by iusane antecedents. IV. IjrCUBATION, OR PRODEOillC PeKIOD: 'pCTVeTsloil' of moral facuities. The medical man whose acute perceptions en- able him to foresee or anticipate general paralysis, when certain conditions are observed with: an-individual^ may frequently avert tiireatenod danger, crime and consequent disgrace^ by rec- ogniziiig early the prodromes of this fejirful, incurable malady. And not only this we have stated, but the reputation of a medi- cal man, the honor of the profession and medical science, are do- graded b}' a failure to recognize what is plainly manifest, al- thougli it may seem trifling and unimportant, yet which even- tually, perhaps too late, declares itself of infinite value as an omen of impending, unavoidable evil; but of which in main instances the serious consequences, by envly recognition of tJic conditions, might have been avoided. To the educated senses of a well informed medical man the fully de\ elo])ed symptoms of general paralysis are of no mon- interest, of no greater significance, than those that so unmistaka- bly cliai-acterize the prodromic period. The reputation, fame we may say, of several eminent Frencli alienists was due to their ability to foresee, and declare the coming storm, that later uprooted mind and vitid power. Maudsley, in his recent work: Ret^ponxihilifi/ in Modal J>i.s- case, 72-7o, illustratas well, as do Winslow and other writers, the necessity of early recognition of mental disease, and tht- itnportancc of giving fidl value to prodromic manifestations.$