Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas D. Savill.

  • Thomas Dixon Savill
Date:
1906
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas D. Savill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    intestinal disorder acted on the nervous system as a toxaemia. I also found that other better recognised auto¬ intoxications—chronic suppurative conditions, for in¬ stance—were capable of acting precisely in the same way in the production of neurasthenia. Here we see the influence of the body upon the mind. In the fresh series of facts submitted in the following pages these questions are investigated anew, and an analysis of 103 private cases of neurasthenia shows that about 80 per cent, were due to some kind of auto¬ intoxication (toxaemia). Among such auto-intoxications may be mentioned intestinal derangement, gastric dis¬ order, chronic appendicitis, pyorrhoea alveolaris, oral sepsis, blenorrhagia, antral disease, chronic alcoholism, excessive tobacco smoking, and incipient phthisis (Lec¬ ture VIII). In 38 per cent, of these cases the neur¬ asthenia was due to various, often very obscure, kinds of intestinal derangement, and a critical examination of these leads me to hope that the bacteriology of the alimentary tract, which awaits further investigation, may some day throw further light on the pathology of neurasthenia. Undoubtedly many morbid conditions may cause neurasthenia, and, unfortunately, they often act in con¬ junction. Their recognition, therefore, is frequently a matter of the greatest difficulty, but it is, nevertheless, a matter of the highest importance for successful treatment. I submit this work to the indulgent criticism of my medical brethren in the hope that it may be of some assistance in the elucidation of these and some of the other difficult problems connected with this trouble¬ some and distressing malady. Upper Berkeley Street, W. August, 1906.