The autobiography of a neurasthene : as told by one of them / and recorded by Margaret A. Cleaves, M. D.

  • Cleaves, Margaret Abigail, 1848-1917.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The autobiography of a neurasthene : as told by one of them / and recorded by Margaret A. Cleaves, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    self-poised and kindhearted physician, he has had since his own experience a better appreciation of the condition of his patient, and while there is neither fretting nor moaning on the part of the one or the other, there is a stronger bond of mutual confidence and understanding between them than before. The patient felt at times that her condition was not fully appreciated by him, but after all his optimistic view, his constant effort to encourage the use, not the waste of such energy as was possessed, was infinitely better than the opinion given him by an eminent neurologist, to whom he confided the story of his muscular contractions, similar in nature to those of a progressive spinal cord lesion, of the intense neuritis, the loss of power to the same extent as with the patient whose story is told, so that objects would fall from his hands. The patient had been through the same experience. It was with the greatest difficulty at one time in the experience of both to even use knife and fork at the table, while the routine carving was an impossibility. It was difficult for him to get about to make his professional calls because of the weak- ness of the leg muscles, while at night the cramping was of such a nature as to bring him out of bed with a bound. The throat muscles and all those essential to mastication and deglutition in both cases grew very weak as well. There were uncomfortable dreams,