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Observations with the Sphygmograph on Asylum Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

T. Duncan Greenlees
T. Duncan Greenlees*
Affiliation:
The Counties Asylum, Carlisle
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Extract

It has been said by some astute critic that “insanity has no pathology,” but it would be a nearer approach to scientific truth if he had said that, with our present imperfect means of investigation, there are many cases of insanity in which no pathological changes can be discovered as the cause of the mental phenomena. The microscope, for example, has as yet failed to differentiate the delicate alterations in the protoplasm of the cerebral cells which result in an outburst of maniacal excitement; nevertheless, the ophthalmoscope shows changes in the vascular supply of the brain in many such cases, and, with the aid of the sphygmograph, light has been thrown on many hitherto obscure conditions of the circulation.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 32 , Issue 140 , January 1887 , pp. 472 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1887

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Footnotes

*

Read at a meeting of the Medico-Psychological Association held at Carlisle on April 8th, 1886.

*

“Handbook of Insanity,” p. 288.

*

“Ophthalmic Medicine,” p. 173.

*

Eulenburg and Guttman maintain that epilepsy in many cases owes its origin partly to a direct and partly to a reflex irritation of the vaso-motor nerves—the “angio-neurotic” theory.

†

“West Riding Asylum Reports,” Vol. II.

*

In the “British Medical Journal,” 1874, p. 522, Dr. J. Crichton Browne records the treatment of two cases of general paralysis by the continuons administration of calabar bean. The first case was discharged “recovered” in less than a year; the second, a female, after three years' treatment. I am unable to say whether these were real recoveries or only remissions, as the ultimate history of the patients is not given. Several other supposed recoveries have been published, but in none is a complete life history recorded, and they may have been only remissions in the course of the disease.

†

“Insanity,” 1883, p. 212.

*

“Journal of Mental Science,” April, 1881.

*

“Psychiatry,” by T. Meynert. Translation by Dr. Sachs, 1885, p. 255.

*

In an interesting paper (“American Journal of Insanity,” July, 1886), Dr. H. M. Hurd discusses the relationship existing between syphilis and general analysis.

*

It follows also, although perhaps needless to formulate, that the opinion of those who have maintained the scientific importance of pulse-tracings in mental disorders is more than justified.

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