Contributions to the study of shell shock : being an account of certain disorders of cutaneous sensibility / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
1916?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Contributions to the study of shell shock : being an account of certain disorders of cutaneous sensibility / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    voice is temporarily altered in character, one patient, for example, not recognising it as his own for a few days. Those who recover spontaneously do so either on waking from sleep or through some unusually powerful or sudden motive for verbal expression. Such cases have often been previously heard to talk in their sleep. In curing mutism by persuasion I have found the following to be a successful procedure. In the first place, I assure the patient that I have already cured many cases of loss of speech by the method I am about to adopt in his case. Next, I ask him each time to copy me as I successively make the sounds (not the accompanying vowels) of B, D, and finally of V, S, K. In by far the majority of my cases I have soon been able to induce the patient to make the necessary move¬ ments of the lips, tongue, or throat for the production of these sounds. Then I encourage the patient thus : “You see you are beginning to talk. Now let me hear you cough.” After he has done so I say, ‘ ‘ You see, you are able to make a noise. I want you next to cough out an A [continental pronunciation.]” After a few trials the patient is usually able to add this vowel to the end of his cough, whereupon I proceed to teach him other vowels, finally prefixing a con¬ sonant instead of a cough to the vowel, and making him vocalise Ba, Di, So, &c. By this time he is delighted with, and assured of, his progress towards recovery, and it is comparatively easy to get him to combine monosyllables together so that he can repeat after me his surname and regimental number. The employment of an anaesthetic was first suggested to me by Captain E. T. C. Milligan, R.A.M.C., who had success¬ fully used it at a clearing station. Recovery should be expected during the stage of excitement preceding true anaesthesia. I remember one patient who began to speak after he had had only two or three “whiffs” of chloroform. I have already mentioned another in which recovery occurred some hours after the administration of the anaesthetic. These cases are instances in which the excitement occasioned by the procedure proved in itself an adequate stimulus. On the other hand, I have anaesthetised some mute patients who have passed into a condition of deep anaesthesia without becoming excited, and did not subsequently regain their speech despite strong verbal suggestion, face-slapping, skin- pinching, &c., applied before the complete loss and during the recovery of consciousness. I have also met with cases in which, although speech returned with the aid of suggestion during the stage of excitement, a relapse to mutism occurred when the effects of the anaesthetic had passed away. Where simple suggestion and encouragement are only imperfectly successful, a complete cure may often be made by recourse to hypnosis. The following cases may be cited as examples.