Epileptic and other convulsive affections of the nervous system, their pathology and treatment.

  • Radcliffe, Charles Bland, 1822-1889.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epileptic and other convulsive affections of the nervous system, their pathology and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    quent occasions on which the dancings recurred. These strange paroxysms were generally accompanied hy some headache and nausea, and followed by a feeling of great weakness and exhaustion, but the patient was always able to go about her household duties in the intervals. Case.—The patient in this case (which fell under my own notice) was a young lady between twelve and thirteen years of age, who had suffered for about three years from a choreic practice of making faces and bobbing her head forwards in a very curious manner. About three weeks before the date of my first visit (24th June, 1857), she suddenly began to suffer from the peculiar paroxysms which have now to be described, and a few months pre- viously she had suffered for some weeks in a similar manner. When attacked by one of these paroxysms she would sink or rise into a sitting posture, with the legs folded under her, and then the head would be agitated by a violent alternating semi-rotatory movement, until the hair would stream out hori- zontally on all sides, like the strands of a mop, when twirled over the side of a vessel. Then followed a movement in which the whole body was thrown round and round by a succession of rapid vaults. In making these vaults the hands were placed npon the floor or bed, and the arms used as a kind of leaping-pole ; and except at the instant of swinging round, when the feet and legs were thrown outwards, the half-sitting, half-kneeling posture was ne\er abandoned. The movement of alternating semi-rotation of the head, and of circumvolution of the entire body, each lasting from one to three minutes, continued, with short intervals of rest, for about half an hour or even longer, and then she would fall back, panting and exhausted. Paroxysms such as these occurred several times a day during the first fortnight of my attendance, and then ceased suddenly. After this she rapidly improved in general health, and the choreic twitchings of the muscles of the face and the bobbings of the head became much less frequent. The improvement, however, was only temporary, and at the end of three months the paroxysms returned, though in a modified form and much less frequently. At this time, indeed, the alter- nating serai-rotatory movement of the head did not return, and the move- ment of circumvolution was varied with other movements. Thus, instead of turning, she would at times make a succession of leaps in a straight line, so that it was necessary to run in order to prevent her from falling out of bed ; and now and then, after falling back exhausted at the end of the paroxysm, she would roll over and over sideways for three or four times. During these strange paroxysms there was not the least trace of stupor, and she would often complain of pain in the head, or of being excessively tired even while the muscular disturbance wTas at its height. In some instances during the second relapse, however, the mind was in a wrapt or entranced state, and now and then words escaped which showed that she was absorbed by some alarm- ing dream or vision. At these times her eye had a fixed stare, and her cheeks were somewhat flushed. When the paroxysm was over she would lie