scholarly journals The Goldsol Test in Mental Disease

1922 ◽  
Vol 68 (280) ◽  
pp. 54-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Bedford
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disease ◽  
Diagnostic Error ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Simple Test ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Present Tense ◽  
Wassermann Reaction ◽  
Imperative Mood ◽  
Careful Investigation

General paralysis is often very difficult to diagnose, and the responsibility of coming to a decision is not lessened by the fatal character of the disease. Amongst the protean manifestations of neuro-syphilis, the early and definite recognition of this, its most deadly and intractable form, offers a problem in nice discrimination—a problem which is in the present tense and imperative mood. According to Southard, of 119 cases diagnosed as general paralysis, post-mortem examination revealed a diagnostic error of 26 per cent. If anyone had been able to devise a less intricate test for syphilis, the Wassermann reaction would never have survived to the present day. It is one of the most complicated methods that have been applied to diagnosis in medicine. Any simple test, therefore, which promises increased precision in diagnosis, is worthy of that careful investigation which is the half-way house to knowledge.

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.

Lantern Demonstration of Gross Lesions of the Cerebrum

1901 ◽  
Vol 47 (199) ◽  
pp. 729-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Shaw Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Dura Mater ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Pyramidal Layer ◽  
Gross Lesions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Morbid Conditions

This demonstration was a further report on the subject laid before the Association at the meeting at Claybury in February last, viz., the morbid changes occurring in the brain and other intra-cranial contents in amentia and dementia. In a paper read before the Royal Society in the spring of 1900, and subsequently published in the Philosophical Transactions, it was stated, as the result of a systematic micrometric examination of the visuo-sensory (primary visual) and visuo-psychic (lower associational) regions of the cerebral cortex, that the depth of the pyramidal layer of nerve-cells varies with the amentia or dementia existing in the patient. At the meeting of the Association referred to it was further shown, from an analysis, clinical and pathological, of 121 cases of insanity which appeared consecutively in the post-mortem room at Claybury, that the morbid conditions inside the skull-cap in insanity, viz., abnormalities in the dura mater, the pia arachnoid, the ependyma and intra-cranial fluid, etc., are the accompaniments of and vary in degree with dementia alone, and are independent of the duration of the mental disease. Since that date the pre-frontal (higher associational) region has been systematically examined in nineteen cases, viz., normal persons and normal aments (infants), and cases of amentia, of chronic and recurrent insanity without appreciable dementia, and of dementia, and the results obtained form the subject of the present demonstration. A paper on the whole subject will shortly be published in the Archives of the Claybury Laboratory.

scholarly journals ON THE WASSERMANN REACTION IN GENERAL PARALYSIS OF THE INSANE

BMJ ◽  
1909 ◽  
Vol 2 (2534) ◽  
pp. 198-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Smith ◽  
J. P. Candler
Keyword(s):  
General Paralysis ◽  
Wassermann Reaction

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.

Paralytic Insanity and its Organic Nature

1866 ◽  
Vol 12 (59) ◽  
pp. 348-367
Author(s):  
Franz Meschede ◽  
G. F. Blandford
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disease ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Points Of Interest ◽  
Fatal Form ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Morbid Anatomy ◽  
Postmortem Examinations

The disorder commonly called “general paralysis of the insane” presents so many points of interest to the pathologist and the physician, that as a necessary consequence it forms the commonest topic among the writings of those who specially study insanity. But after so much observation and so many treatises, it is disheartening to find that even now scarcely more than one fact with regard to it is laid down as settled and established beyond the possibility of doubt. One there is, the saddest that can be. It is, that for this malady we hitherto have found no cure; that to diagnose it is to pronounce the sentence, not only of incurable insanity, but also of speedy death. The marvel of the whole is, that although death occurs in every case at no very distant period, though postmortem examinations of general paralytics are made by hundreds every year in this and other countries, yet even at this day no two observers are agreed as to the pathology and morbid anatomy, as to the part in which it has its origin, or which constitutes its peculiar and proper seat. No wonder that the whole of the morbid anatomy of insane brain is vague and ill-defined, when this, the specially fatal form of mental disease, still hides itself from usâ still wraps itself in the mystery which envelopes all that relates to mind. I make no apology for drawing the attention of the readers of this Journal to a paper on the subject, published in the October and November numbers of ‘ Virchow's Archives/ 1865, and for giving a short and necessarily imperfect summary of its contents, it being too long for reproduction. But as every outline must needs be unsatisfactory, I trust my readers will go themselves to the original. In default of opportunity of examining many brains of paralytic patients, I present as a contribution to the English treatises on the subject these observations of another.

Notes on a Case of Fracture of the Fibula in a Melancholic Patient, with Remarks on Treatment in Fractures Generally

1898 ◽  
Vol 44 (184) ◽  
pp. 101-104
Author(s):  
J. F. Briscoe
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Medical Officer ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Post Mortem Examination ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Treatment ◽  
Fractured Ribs ◽  
Osseous System

The object of this communication is to draw from the members of the Association the modern treatment of fractures as adopted in institutions for the insane. It is obvious that the various plans, as practised in hospitals, must be considerably modified in asylums. For instance, to strap and bandage a case of fractured ribs, secundum artem, taxes any medical officer, unless the patient is quietly disposed and clean in his habits. However, with skill and a fairly docile patient, there should be little difficulty in the management of ordinary fractures of the bones below the elbows and the knees. From time to time one reads of cases of fractures of the ribs occurring in asylums, remarkable autopsies being recorded. It is difficult sometimes to give a correct history of their causation, and, in consequence, much opprobrium has been unjustly cast on asylum officials. It is believed by not a few that there is a peculiar affection of the ribs in the insane causing them to fracture readily. It is said, too, that it is common in general paralysis. Dr. Christian has stated in the Journal of Mental Science, January, 1886, that he is decidedly opposed to the idea that general paralytics are more liable to fracture of the bones. He gives 250 cases, and says, “I can assure you, gentlemen, I have not come across a single case of fracture among them.” But no figures of the kind can be relied upon unless verified by post-mortem examination. It is not uncommon to find in the mortuaries of ordinary hospitals and asylums, and in the dissecting-room, specimens of fractured ribs, the causation of which is unaccounted for. With our present pathological knowledge of the osseous system we must withhold our verdict.

On General Paralysis

1859 ◽  
Vol 5 (30) ◽  
pp. 575-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrington Tuke
Keyword(s):  
Special Form ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Peculiar Form

There is certainly no physician now engaged in the treatment of mental disease, who is not perfectly acquainted with that peculiar form of malady designated as general paralysis. In the wards of the public hospitals for the insane, in our consulting rooms, and in our private asylums, the disease in all its stages is perpetually passing under our observation. Its claim to rank as a special form of disorder is perfectly understood; its diagnosis has become speedy and certain; and yet in general medicine it is almost unknown, its most prominent features are overlooked; its indices are disregarded, and its very existence, except as either a modification of paralysis or a complication of lunacy, has been and is denied by able and experienced practitioners.

Observations on General Paralysis of the Insane and on the Morbid Changes found on Post-mortem Examination in the Spinal Cord

1871 ◽  
Vol 17 (77) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Robt Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
General Paralysis ◽  
Post Mortem Examination ◽  
Somerset County

The following observations are mainly the result of the author's experience during twenty years in the Somerset. County Asylum; many of them have appeared from time to time in his annual reports of that institution.

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