A note on chronic chromatopsia and toxic hysteria / by G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • George Edmund de Schweinitz
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A note on chronic chromatopsia and toxic hysteria / by G. E. de Schweinitz. 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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    and that the patients will suffer from hemianesthesia, restriction of the visual field and similar conditions, and can be cured by remedies of in- different potency, or even by suggestion. I know of no reason why tobacco should not be added to this list. I regret to say that I did not try the effect of suggestion or indifferent remedies, but gave very honest doses of iodide of potassium, bichloride of mercury and strychnia, as I did not in the least suspect either an hysterical element, or that the blind- ness was feigned, before the tests to detect pretended amblyopia were made. It is interesting to observe that, if the patient's clinical history is cor- rect, apparently he has disassociated the left eye from the visual act for at least eleven years, because one would hardly credit this patient with malingering; indeed, there is nothing to render such a course on his part necessary, either now or in times past, and although the fact that he saw with the left eye was developed by the ordinary tests for feigned blind- ness, they do not necessarily mean that the blindness was feigned. It is probable in these cases, as has been pointed out, that the subject really sees, but that the impulses coming from the periphery are not properly recorded until something takes place which places the burden of the visual act upon the supposed blind eye. Be this as it may, the record of the case seemed worthy as an interesting clinical observation, not only on account of the association of what may be called hysteric and toxic elements, but chiefly on account of the very rare phenomenon of colored-vision under these circumstances. It goes without saying that no question suggested to this patient to describe colored-vision. It was for this that he sought advice and his descriptions were given without the slightest prompting.
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