On athetosis, or imbecility with ataxia / by T. Clay [sic] Shaw.

  • Shaw, Thomas Claye, 1840-1926.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On athetosis, or imbecility with ataxia / by T. Clay [sic] Shaw. 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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    [Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. IX.] /S^3 On Athetosis, or Imbecility with Ataxia. By T. Clay Siiaw, M.D. THE term £ Athetosis ’ has been applied to a peculiar motor affection first described by Dr. Hammond of New York, and since his description alluded to by Professor Gfairdner. These two writers refer to a disease attacking pei'sons who, up to a certain age (more or less advanced in particular instances), were in good health, with perfect command over all their muscles. Before reading Dr. Hammond’s description, I had noticed a peculiar but limited class of imbecile persons who resemble each other closely in features, bodily development, and peculiarity of action in certain muscular groups. These imbeciles (including persons of both sexes) represent a con- genital condition, or at any rate one supervening soon after birth; and they so closely resemble those whose motor affec- tion comes on at a later period, that one is forced to conclude that the central lesion is the same in both sets of cases, and that the history of the one set may explain that of the other. The larity of the symptoms is shown by Dr. Hammond having only six cases to report, and my experience is limited to about the same number. The affection may be at once described as an inability to retain a fixed position, owing to a slow but constant action of certain extensor and flexor muscles. As in Dr. Hammond’s instances of secondary disease, so in mine of a congenital affection, it is the muscular inco-ordina tion that renders them incapable of being of much service to themselves or others. The term ‘ Imbecility ’ is difficult of