Lectures on mental diseases / by W.H.O. Sankey.

  • Sankey, William Henry Octavius.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on mental diseases / by W.H.O. Sankey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    few months, improvement took place and he went to the sea side. While at the sea side he relapsed, was admitted under my care in a state of maniacal excitement. I found the mental disturbance very pronounced, with excitement and violence, there was deaf- ness of left ear, ptosis of left eye, paralysis of left arch of the palate, no discharge from ear. He recovered in six months suffi- ciently to return home; but there remained distinct cerebral symptoms of a kind, as aversion to his relations, irritability of temper, desire for litigation, etc., but he gradually improved for several months, when mental irritability and insane conduct returned. He behaved outrageously in public, brawled in church and was sent back, through magisterial interference to my care. He again improved under slight control, amused himself in various ways, in drawing, driving, and in writing a narrative of the life of a scripture patriarch. He had from time to time twitching of the paralysed side of the face, and an occasional discharge from the ear of offensive kind. He had two or three slight attacks of petit mat. He fell once on getting off his horse, at another time he dropped while]walking, on the last occasion ho fell slightly convulsed and died, and a free discharge of bloody purulent matter escaped from the ear. Probably this case was due to internal cerebral disease, evidently seated near the left temporal fossa. It did not follow the usual course of ordinary insanity, though the first appearance of symptoms were said to be depression, but more distinctly drowsiness, and there was never illusion or actual delusion, the progress of the case extended over an unusually long period. Dr. Ferrier in the West Biding Reports, relates a case of cancer of the cerebrum which was sent to the Yorkshire asylum, the mental state was that of dementia. The cases of organic brain disease to be met with in some asylums, are more likely to be due to syphilis, and the case re- quires more distinct description as it is said in certain cases to put on the appearance of general paresis. Hence the diagnosis of such cases becomes important. A reference has already been made to syphilis as a supposed cause of general paresis, and the reasons discussed for the con- clusion that general paresis is not a form of syphilitic disease. In this place it will be attempted to show how syphilis may