scholarly journals The Relation of Mental Symptoms to Bodily Disease, with special reference to their Treatment outside Lunatic Asylums

1904 ◽  
Vol 50 (208) ◽  
pp. 13-31
Author(s):  
Nathan Raw
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Great Frequency ◽  
Mental Symptoms ◽  
Lunatic Asylums

My object in reading this paper before this important Association of mental experts is twofold: first, to draw attention to the great frequency of mental symptoms developing in the course of an attack of bodily illness; and secondly, to the unsatisfactory condition of our system in this country in dealing with and treating persons suffering from temporary mental disease.

scholarly journals XXVI. Report on a Communication from Dr Dyce of Aberdeen, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, ‘On Uterine Irritation, and its Effects on the Female Constitution.’

1823 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Dewar
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
The State ◽  
Healthy State ◽  
Mental Symptoms ◽  
Mental Powers

The communication received from Dr Dyce chiefly consists of a description of a singular affection of the nervous system, and mental powers, to which a girl of sixteen was subject immediately before puberty, and which disappeared when that state was fully established. It exemplifies the powerful influence of the state of the uterus on the mental faculties; but its chief value arises from some curious relations which it presents to the phenomena of mind, and which claim the attention of the practical metaphysician. The mental symptoms of this affection are among the number of those which are considered as uncommonly difficult of explanation. It is a case of mental disease, attended with some advantageous manifestations of the intellectual powers; and these manifestations disappearing in the same individual in the healthy state.

Some Doubtful Cases of So-Called General Paralysis of the Insane

1914 ◽  
Vol 60 (249) ◽  
pp. 291-295
Author(s):  
W. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disease ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Mental Symptoms ◽  
Wassermann Reaction

Cases of mental disease which give definite mental symptoms and physical signs of the condition recognised and at present called general paralysis of the insane, and which, moreover give a Wassermann reaction, seem to be invariably due to syphilis, and to contain in many cases spirochætes in the cerebral substance. Out of seven such cases of well-marked general paralysis, which on death were examined for spirochætes by Dr. McIntosh, six cases showed the presence of spirochætes. The seventh case was regarded as doubtful.

Mental Disease (not General Paralysis) associated with Tabes Dorsalis

1897 ◽  
Vol 43 (180) ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
P. W. Macdonald ◽  
A. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disease ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Tabes Dorsalis ◽  
Mental Symptoms ◽  
Nerve Tracts

The object of this paper is not so much to relate anything that is new as to show that mental symptoms are not always easy of classification when associated with organic changes in nerve tracts outside the cerebral cavity.

7. Sociology

1901 ◽  
Vol 47 (196) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
W. C. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Sexual Function ◽  
Present State ◽  
Genital Tract ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Good Effect ◽  
Mental Symptoms ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Generative Organs

This is a report of Dr. Macnaughton-Jones' address to the British Gynæcological Society at the close of his year of office as president. The writer points out that the present state of our knowledge only admits of very tentative opinions on the relation of sexual function to psychic processes. The first point dealt with is the influence of menstruation on such processes; the magnitude of the alterations in the entire genital tract at each menstrual period is indicated, and note is taken of recent researches into the effects of ovarian secretion on general and nervous metabolism, especially as illustrated in the pathology of osteomalacia. Having touched on the various minor neuroses which appear to be reflex results of genital disorders, the author discusses briefly the relation of such disorders to the graver neuroses and to mental disease. In this connection, he refers to the published clinical evidence (chiefly by American authors) of insanity and epilepsy associated with pelvic disease and disappearing after the removal of the diseased organs. Per contra, however, attention is drawn to the large number of cases of insanity with pelvic disease where operation produces no good effect on the mental symptoms, and two personal observations of this nature are mentioned. The author leans to the opinion—shared by most of the leading British alienists, whom he quotes—that true sexual insanity is very rare. The experience of a number of operators on this point and on the cognate question of postoperative insanity is then summarised. The general conclusion to be drawn from the available facts would appear to be that disease of the generative organs can produce insanity only in predisposed subjects; and that it is in the same class of subjects that operative interference is likely to cause mental disorder.

The Systematic Estimation of the Leucocytosis in Certain Cases of Insanity: with Special Reference to the Toxæmic Theory

1910 ◽  
Vol 56 (232) ◽  
pp. 63-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Carlisle Howard
Keyword(s):  
Staphylococcus Aureus ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
The Body ◽  
Hereditary Predisposition ◽  
Hereditary Factor ◽  
Fundamental Fact ◽  
Secondary Infections ◽  
Tubercular Infection

Surveying insanity as a whole, one recognises as a fundamental fact that insane persons belong to a class who start life with a “deficient grade of organisation” of the nervous system called “hereditary predisposition.” Some authorities hold that this is the sine quâ non of insanity, but such a view, I consider, is not strictly accurate. It is certainly not borne out by statistics. All observers, using even indifferent discrimination, must have noticed cases in which no hereditary factor could be traced, but in which much self-abuse had occurred—either in the form of alcoholic, sexual, and other excesses—or where syphilis or other powerful toxæmic conditions had been contracted. Such conditions, I argue, may themselves break down the most hardy constitution and leave it a prey to secondary infections or intoxications, which may manifest themselves as insanity. Assuming that the insane, prior to their attack of mental disease, suffer from either some hereditary weakness, or some acquired constitutional degeneration, it is most probable that such defects act a dual part, weakening not only the nervous system, so that it is more susceptible to the actions of toxins and environments, but also weakening the natural defences of the body. The nervous system of these people is thus laid open to more severe and frequent attacks from poisonous substances, whether of bacterial, metabolic, or other sources, than is the nervous system of a more normally organised individual. In support of this statement I would mention that Dr. L. C. Bruce has pointed out that over 60 per cent. of maniacal patients were deficient in the normal protective agglutinin to certain strains of Staphylococcus aureus. This agglutinin is always present in healthy sera. Further, Dr. C. J. Shaw has ably demonstrated that the reason tubercular diseases account for so large a proportion of the deaths in asylums lies, not in any faulty hygienic precautions, but in the fact that the resistive power of the insane to tubercular infection is below par. Assuming that this hypothesis is true, we can more readily understand why the various insanities so frequently resist our efforts to cure them.

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