Cases of periodical jactitation, or chorea / by Robert Watt, M.D.

  • Robert Watt
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases of periodical jactitation, or chorea / by Robert Watt, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Having lately had an opportunity of seeing one of these restless patients, I was induced to take the following notes of the case; which I now beg leave to submit to the Society. But before pro¬ ceeding, I may remark, that there appears evi¬ dently to be several species or varieties of this disease, all of them characterized by an ungovern¬ able propensity to motion, and all of them removed or mitigated by particular kinds of muscular ex¬ ertion. A disease of this kind occurs frequently in the northern parts of Scotland, and is described in the following terms:—6C Those affected first complain of a pain in the head, or lower part of the back, to which succeed convulsive fits, or fits of dancing at certain periods. During the paroxysm they have all the appearance of madness, distorting their bodies in various ways, and Teaping and springing in a surprising manner, whence the dis¬ ease has derived its vulgar name u Leaping Ague/5 Sometimes they run with astonishing velocity, and often over dangerous passes, to some place out of doors, which they have fixed on in their own minds, or perhaps even mentioned to those in company with them, and then drop down quite exhausted. At other times, especially when con¬ fined to the house, they climb in the most singular manner. In cottages, for example, they leap from the floor to what are called the baulks, or those beams by which the rafters are joined together*
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