Causes.--Inflammatory causes. It is seen in gastritis, peritonitis,
hernia, appendicitis, and in severe forms of typhoid fever. Irritative
causes. Swallowing hot substances, local disease of the gullet near the
diaphragm, and in many cases of stomach trouble and bowel disorder,
especially when associated with gas (flatus). Specific causes: Gout,
diabetes or chronic Bright's disease. Nervous (Neurotic) causes. Hysteria,
epilepsy, shock, or brain tumors.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Hiccough. Vinegar for.--"One teaspoonful vinegar
sipped carefully (so it will not strangle the patient) will stop them
almost instantly."
2. Hiccough, Sugar and Vinegar Stops.--"A few drops of strong vinegar
dropped on a lump of sugar and held in the mouth until dissolved, will
stop most cases of hiccoughs."
3. Hiccough, Sugar Will Relieve Patient of.--"Place a little dry sugar on
the end of the tongue and hold the breath. I have tried this remedy after
others have failed and obtained instant relief."
4. Hiccough, Simple Remedy for.--"Have patient hold both ears closed with
the fingers, then give them three swallows cold water while they hold
their breath."
5. Hiccough, Home Remedy to Stop.--"Take nine swallows of cold water while
holding the breath."
6. Hiccough. Vinegar Stops.--"One teaspoonful of vinegar thickened with
sugar and eaten slowly."
7. Hiccough, Cinchona Bark in Peppermint Stops.--"Put about one-fourth
teaspoonful of cinchona bark, powdered in two ounces of peppermint water,
and give one teaspoonful every five or ten minutes until relieved, or
three drops of camphor and aqua ammonia in wineglassful of water," These
remedies are very good when the stomach is at fault, as they have a
stimulating effect.
PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT.--Sudden start may check it in the light forms. Ice,
a teaspoonful of salt and lemon juice may be tried. Inhalations of
chloroform often relieve. Strong retraction of the tongue may give
immediate relief. Spirits of camphor, one teaspoonful. Tincture of cayenne
pepper one to two drops in water. Ten grains of musk by the rectum.
Hoffman's anodyne one teaspoonful in ice water is very good.
[NERVOUS SYSTEM 303]
INJURIES TO THE HEAD. Concussion or Laceration of the Brain.--The brain
may be injured by a blow on the head, or indirectly by falling fully upon
the feet or sitting down hard upon the buttocks.
Symptoms.--The person who is injured may lose his balance and fall, become
pale, confused, and giddy, may have nausea and vomiting and recover. If
the injury is more severe and there is a tear of the membranes of the
brain or the brain itself, the patient will fall and lie quietly with a
feeble and fluttering heart, cold, clammy skin, and apparent
unconsciousness; he can be roused by shouting but will not reply
intelligently. He will be able to move his limbs. The urine and contents
of the bowels will be passed involuntarily. As he gets better he may
vomit. He may soon return to entire consciousness, but still suffer from
some headache, feel wearied, and tired, and not feel like exerting
himself. This may continue for some time. Occasionally the results are
more serious even after a long time has passed, and an abscess of the
brain should be watched for, sometimes epilepsy or insanity follows. If
the patient grows worse instead of recovering, either deep seeming sleep
sets in or symptoms of inflammation of the covering (meninges) or the
brain itself follows. Such injuries must be carefully watched, for you can
not tell at first how severe they may prove to be.
TREATMENT. What to do First.--Put the patient to bed without any pillow,
and put around his body hot water bottles or bags, suitably covered. He
should be kept quiet and free from excitement, and sleep should be
encouraged. Hot water or ice water, when awake, as is most agreeable to
the patient, may be given. Aromatic spirit of ammonia, during the shock is
better for the patient to take than alcohol, for alcohol excites the
brain; dose, one-half to two drams; the former can be given every ten
minutes in a little water for about three doses. Surgical treatment may be
necessary at any time.
INJURIES OF THE SPINAL CORD. Concussion of the Spine.--A severe jarring of
the body followed by a group of spinal symptoms supposed to be due to some
minute changes in the cord, of an unknown nature.
Causes.--Severe concussion may result from railway accidents or violent
bending of the body, fall from a house, blow on the back, jumping, etc.
Symptoms.--May come on suddenly, when it is due to a jar of the brain as
well as the cord. Loss of consciousness, complete paralysis, small pulse,
collapse, and within a few hours death may follow. In other cases
improvement, though very slow, follows. Walking is difficult and the upper
extremities are weak in these cases. There are pain and tenderness along
the spine. Brain symptoms, such as headache, dizziness and fainting, may
be present or absent.
Treatment.--Absolute rest from the beginning, stimulants if necessary,
electricity is useful.
TRAUMATISM OF THE CORD. (Blows, etc.).--(Fractures and dislocations,
gunshot and stab wounds, etc.).
Symptoms.--They differ according to the place where the cord is injured.
The motion and feeling power may be disturbed. There may be sudden
complete paralysis of the upper and lower extremities depending on how
severely the cord is injured, and how high up the injury is. The bladder
and rectum may not act properly. The contents may be retained or
"run-away." Death follows sooner or later if the injury is extensive. In
some cases the symptoms are slight in the beginning, but increase in a few
days, or they may suddenly increase a few months afterwards. In other
cases, bad symptoms at first may gradually abate which is due to the blood
clot having been absorbed.
[304 MOTHERS' REMEDIES ]
Recovery depends upon the extent of the injury and the constitution of the
patient. It is always well to be careful about expressing an opinion about
this injury.
Treatment. Immediate.--Surgical treatment is necessary. Absolute rest is a
necessity, and must be had for weeks according to the severity of the
case. It may seem long and become tedious, but the case must have rest for
a long time.
ORGANIC DISEASES OF THE SPINAL CORD. Caisson Disease; Divers' Paralysis.
Causes.--This affection occurs in divers, bridge builders, and others who
are subject to increased atmospheric pressure. The symptoms develop on
coming suddenly to the surface when the atmospheric pressure is greatly
lessened.
Symptoms.--They usually occur on the return to the surface of the water,
or after a few hours have passed. There are pains in the ears and joints
and nose-bleed. The pulse is slow and strong. Neuralgia of the stomach and
vomiting often occur. Paralysis of one side, or of the lower extremities
may occur. Brain symptoms may develop and death may follow in a few hours.
In most cases recovery takes place in a few days or weeks.
Treatment.--Persons who are engaged in such work should change very
gradually from a great depth to the surface, and should not go into the
outer air suddenly.
MYELITIS.--Myelitis is an inflammation of the spinal cord.
Causes.--It may occur at any age, and is more common in male than in
female. The exciting causes are prolonged exposure to severe colds, too
great mental and physical exertion, sexual excess, blows, bleeding into
the cord, alcoholic excess, acute infectious diseases, syphilis, etc.
Symptoms.--These depend upon the location of the inflammation and the
severity. The onset may be sudden or gradual--when it is sudden, there may
be a chill followed by a fever of 101 to 103 degrees--general feeling of
illness, loss of appetite, with coated tongue and constipation. There may
be over-sensitiveness to pain and touch. Pain may radiate from the back
into the limbs, with numbing and tingling of the limbs. The urine may be
retained or may dribble away. Usually there is obstinate constipation.
There is frequently the feeling of a band around the body. Paralysis may
follow in the lower extremities and higher up, sometimes, depending upon
how high up in the cord the inflammation exists. This paralysis may cause
no motion of the limbs or produce an exaggerated contracting of the
affected muscles, the knees being drawn up on the abdomen and the heels
touching the buttocks.
[NERVOUS DISEASES 305]
Recovery.--Chances for recovery depend upon the cause. Most cases are
chronic and may last for years.
Treatment.--Treatment depends also upon the cause. Rest in bed;
counter-irritation, wet cupping, with care on account of bed sores. A
water-bed from the first may prevent bed-sores. The urine must be drawn if
it is retained. The medical treatment must be carefully given and a
physician of experience should be obtained.
LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA. Tabes dorsalis. Posterior Spinal Sclerosis).--A
hardening (sclerosis) affecting the posterior parts of the spinal cord and
characterized by incoordination, which means a condition where a person is
unable to produce voluntary muscular movements; for instance, of the legs,
etc., loss of deep reflexes to bend them back; disturbances of nutrition
and sensation, and various affections of sight.
Causes.--This is a disease of adult life, persons under twenty-five being
rarely affected, and is more common in men than women (ten to one).
Sometimes children suffering from hereditary syphilis have it. The chief
predisposing cause is syphilis which precedes it in from seventy to
eighty-five of the cases according to various authorities. Exposure to
cold and wet, sexual and alcoholic excesses, mineral poisoning, and great
physical exertion also exciting causes.
Symptoms.--These are numerous. They appear in succession and with the same
regularity.
Stages.--Stages of pain; the stage of ataxia, peculiar gait; and the state
of paralysis.
1. Prodromal or forerunning; the stage of pain.--This consists of
lightning-like pains in the lower extremities, numbness, formication
(feeling of ants, etc., crawling), sensation of dead extremities; pins and
needles in the soles of the feet and fingers, coldness, itching of arms
and scrotum or other parts, a sensation of constriction around the chest,
headache, pain in the small of the back and loins of an aching character
may occur. These symptoms may constitute the only evidence of locomotor
ataxia and last for years; but sooner or later there are added absence of
knee cap bone reflex (knee jerk), and immobility of the pupil. The loss of
the knee jerk is always observed in time. The pupil fails to respond to
light while it still accommodates for distance, called Argyll Roberston
pupil. There may be imperfect control of the bladder with slow, dripping
or hasty urination. Later the control is not imperfect, but it may be
painful. Inflammation of the bladder may occur which is dangerous. There
is usually obstinate constipation and loss of sexual power. These symptoms
may last for several months and years, and then the second stage symptoms
appear.
[306 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
2. Stage of Ataxia (Disturbance of motion).--The disturbance of motion
(ataxia) is very marked, especially in the lower extremities; the walking
becomes difficult and uncertain; there is difficulty in rising or rapid
turning; the legs are wide apart; feet lifted too high and come down too
forcibly; the length of the steps is irregular, and the body is
imperfectly balanced. If the patient stands with his feet together and
eyes closed he begins to sway, (Romberg's symptom), which is due to a
defect in controlling the muscles from impairment of sensation. There may
be imperfect use of the hands in dressing, writing, etc.; lancinating
pains are marked in all cases and come on in paroxysms. The pains are
mostly in the legs, but also occur in the arms, head, loins, back, and
trunk. Then the sense of touch is partially lost. The prick of a pin may
not be felt until a few seconds after being applied. This stage may last
for years and remain at a "standstill;" but it is usually progressive, and
advances to the third stage.
3. The stage of paralysis is marked by a gradual change to the worse, and
the patient must remain in bed, because he cannot get out. The lower and
sometimes the upper extremities have lost a great deal of their power of
sensation: The joints, mostly the knee and hip joints show on both sides
of the body a painless swelling, owing to the great quantities of watery
liquid there. Dislocations and fractures occur simultaneously. Bed-sores
and peculiar ulcers on the sole of the foot also occur. The urine dribbles
away constantly, for all control of the bladder is lost. Death occurs from
exhaustion; bedsores, inflammation of the bladder, or pneumonia coming on
as a complication.
Treatment;--The only thing to do when the patient has this disease is to
make him comfortable and arrest the progress of it, if possible. It is
incurable, but treatment sometimes arrests the progress and at least
lessens the suffering and prolongs life as long as it is worth living to
them. I have given a longer description than was necessary, for I wanted
men who live such fast lives to understand what it brings them for most
cases are caused by syphilis. The description could have been made longer
and other symptoms and complications put in. I think enough has been given
and perhaps this description may deter some one from going the same road.
The Diagnosis is made at first by the fatigue, peculiar pains, loss of the
knee jerk, the peculiar pupil and history of syphilis. Later it is made
from the ataxia; the peculiar walk, etc., and the bladder disturbances.
HEREDITARY ATAXIA. Friedrich's Disease.--This peculiar disease is due to a
degenerative disease of the posterior and lateral columns (parts) of the
spinal cord, occurring in childhood, and often in several children of the
same family.
Causes.--More in boys than in girls and oftener in the country districts.
Heredity is frequently a cause and it is traced to syphilis, epilepsy,
alcoholism, and insanity in the ancestors. Several children of the same
family may have it.
Symptoms.--In very young children it is noticed that they are slow in
learning to walk; the child staggers in trying to stand or to walk; it
uses its hands clumsily, and has difficulty in speaking. The movements of
the hands are peculiar, the hands move like in chorea, the speech is slow
and drawling.
Recovery.--Very doubtful, but they may last for years.
[NERVOUS DISEASES 307]
INFANTILE PARALYSIS. (Acute Anterior Polio Myelitis).--This is an acute
disease occurring almost exclusively in young children with paralysis,
followed by rapid dwindling of the muscles of the parts affected by the
paralysis.
Causes.--Found in children under three years old. It is more common in
summer than in winter. It often follows scarlet fever, measles, and
diphtheria.
Symptoms.--The onset is usually sudden; often the child is put to bed at
night seemingly well and in the morning is found paralyzed in one or more
limbs. High fever or chills, general feeling of illness, pain all over the
body, decided brain symptoms, like delirium or convulsions and
intermittent contractions of the muscles may usher in the disease. These
forerunning symptoms may last a short time or for several weeks, after
which the paralysis is noticed, being extensive as a rule, and affecting
one, two, or all of the extremities and sometimes the muscles of the
trunk. This general paralysis soon disappears being left permanently in
only one extremity, chiefly in one leg. The other symptoms disappear. The
paralyzed part atrophies (wastes) rapidly. The disease is very rare in
adults. If the paralysis does not show a decided change within the first
few months, full recovery is doubtful.
Treatment.--During the acute stage there must be absolute quiet and rest
with a diet that is not stimulating, one that is easily digested; ice to
the head or cold cloths, counter-irritation to the spine; electricity
should be used after a few weeks. There is quite a good deal of this
paralysis, and the case should receive careful attention from the start.
TASTE.--Taste-Buds.--There are three kinds of papillae or eminences on the
human tongue,--the circumvallate, the fungiform and the filiform. The
circumvallate are from seven to twelve in number and lie near the root of
the tongue, arranged in the form of a V, with its open angle turned
forward. Each one is an elevation of the mucous membrane, covered by
epithelium and surrounded by a trench. On the sides of the papillae,
embedded in the epithelium, are small oval bodies called taste-buds. These
taste-buds consist of a sheath of flattened, fusiform cells, enclosing a
number of spindle-like cells whose tapering ends are prolonged into a
hair-like process. As the filaments of the gustatory nerves terminate
between these rod-like cells, it is probable that they are the true
sensory cells of taste.
[308 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
In the human tongue taste-buds are also found in the fungiform papillae,
often seem as red dots scattered over its surface; and to an area just in
front of the anterior pillar of the fauces. It is also possible that
single taste-cells are scattered over the tongue, as the sense of taste
exists where no taste-buds can be found.
[Illustration: Taste Buds.]
Many so-called tastes are really smells. This is easily proved by
compressing the nostrils and attempting to distinguish by taste different
articles of food.
The taste sensation is greatest when the exciting substance is at the
temperature of the body. There is no perceptible sweetness to sugar when
the tongue has been dipped for a half-minute in water either at the
freezing temperature or warmed to 50 degrees C. Neither is there any sense
of taste until the substance is dissolved by the natural fluids of the
mouth, as will be seen by wiping the tongue dry and placing sugar upon it.
The four primary taste-sensations are bitter, sweet, sour and salt. These
probably have separate centers and nerve fibers. Sweet and sour tastes are
chiefly recognized at the front and bitter and alkaline tastes at the back
of the tongue. The same substance will often excite a different sensation,
according as it is placed at the front or back of the tongue.
There are also laws of contrast in taste sensations. Certain substances
will enhance the flavor of another and others will destroy it. Again,
certain tastes may disguise others without destroying them, as when an
acid is covered with a sweet.
INSANITY. History.--The earliest reference to insanity is found in the
book of Deuteronomy. Another reference is in Samuel where it speaks
concerning David's cunning and successful feigning of insanity. "And he
changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands,
and scrabbled on the door-posts of the gate, and let his spittle fall down
upon his beard," Feigning insanity under distressing circumstances has
been one of man's achievements throughout the centuries. It is spoken of
in Ecclesiastes. Jeremiah says in regard to the wine cup: "And they shall
drink and be moved and be mad." Nations also were poisoned by the wine
cup, for Jeremiah says, "Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's
hands, that made all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken of her
wine, therefore the nations are mad." Greek writers speak of cases of
mental unsoundness as occurring with some frequency in Greece. The
inhabitants of the Roman Empire were afflicted with mental unsoundness and
Nero was considered crazy. In ancient Egypt there were temples and priests
for the care of the insane.
[NERVOUS DISEASES 309]
Hippocrates, who lived four hundred years before Christ, was the first
physician who seemed to have any true conception of the real nature of
insanity. For many centuries later the masses believed that madness was
simply a visitation of the devil. The insane, in the time of Christ, were
permitted to wander at large among the woods and caves of Palestine. The
monks built the first hospital or asylum for the insane six centuries
after Christ.
A hospital for the insane was established at Valencia in Spain in 1409. In
1547 the hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem was established near London and
was known as "Bedlam" for a long time.
The first asylum to be run upon reform principles was St. Luke's of
London, founded in 1751. About 1791 Samuel Hahnemann established an asylum
for the insane at Georgenthal, near Gotha, and the law of kindness was the
unvarying rule in the institution. Hahnemann says in his Lesser Writings:
"I never allow any insane persons to be punished by blows or other
corporeal inflictions." Pineli struck the chains from the incarcerated
insane at the Bicetre, near Paris in 1792 or 1793.
There has been a gradual tendency during the last century toward better
things in the behalf of the insane. A hundred years ago they were treated
with prison surroundings and prison fare. Then asylum treatment began to
prevail. This means close confinement, good food, sufficient clothing and
comfortable beds. Asylum care means the humane custody of dangerous
prisoners. "From the asylum we move on to the hospital system of caring
for the insane and this system recognizes the fact that the lunatic is a
sick man and needs nursing and medical treatment in order to be cured.
Hospital treatment has been gradually introduced during the past thirty
years or more," and in time it will eventually supercede asylum treatment
and prison or workhouse methods in the management of the insane
everywhere.
[310 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Causes of Insanity.--There are many and various causes. One author states:
"Mental abnormality is always due to either imperfect or eccentric
physical development, or to the effects of inborn or acquired physical
disease, or to injurious impressions, either ante-natal or post natal,
upon the delicate and intricate physical structure known as the human
brain." Some physical imperfections, more than others, give rise to mental
derangements, and some persons, more than others, when affected by any
bodily ailment, tend to aberrated conditions of the mind. Some impressions
more than others, are peculiarly unfortunate by reason of their crowding
effects upon the brain tablets of a sensitive mind. To these natural
defects and unnatural tendencies, we apply, in the general way, the term
"Insane Diathesis." This diathesis may be inherited or acquired. Those who
are born to become insane do not necessarily spring from insane parents or
from an ancestry having any apparent taint of lunacy in the blood. But
they do receive from their progenitors oftentimes certain impressions upon
their mental and moral, as well as upon their physical being, which
impressions, like iron molds, fix and shape their subsequent destinies."
The insane diathesis in the child may come from hysteria in the mother. A
drunken father may impel epilepsy, madness or idiocy in the child.
Ungoverned passions, from love to hate, from hope to fear, when indulged
in overmuch by the parents, may unloose the furies of unrestrained madness
in the minds of the children. "The insane may often trace their sad
humiliation and utter unfitness for life's duties back through a tedious
line of unrestrained passion, of prejudice, bigotry, and superstition
unbridled, of lust unchecked, of intemperance uncontrolled, of avarice
unmastered, and of nerve resources wasted, exhausted, and made bankrupt
before its time. Timely warnings by the physician and appeals to his
clients of today, may save them for his own treatment, instead of
consigning them to an asylum where his fees cease from doubling, and the
crazed ones are at rest." The causes of the insane diathesis
(constitution) are frequently traceable to the methods of life of those
who produce children under such circumstances and conditions that the
offspring bear the indelible birthmark of mental weakness. Early
dissipations of the father produce an exhausted and enfeebled body; and a
demoralized mind and an unholy and unhealthy existence in the mother, are
causes. Fast living of parents in society is a fruitful cause of mental
imperfections in their children. "The sons of royalty and the sons of the
rich, are often weak in brain force because of the high living of their
ancestry."
The fast high livers of today are developing rapidly and surely, strong
tendencies to both mental and physical disorders. Elbert Hubbard says of
those who live at a certain hotel and waste their substance there, that
they are apt "to have gout at one end, general paresis at the other, and
Bright's disease in the middle."
Drunkenness, lust, rage, fear, mental anxiety or incompatibility, "if
admitted to participation in the act of impregnation will each, in turn or
in combination, often set the seal of their presence in the shape of
idiocy, imbecility, eccentricity, or absolute insanity."
Diogenes reproached a half-witted, cracked-brained unfortunate with this
remark, "Surely, young man, thy father begat thee when he was drunk."
[NERVOUS DISEASES 311]
Burton in his anatomy of melancholy states that: "If a drunken man begets
a child it will never likely have a good brain," Michelet predicts: "Woe
unto the children of darkness, the sons of drunkenness who were, nine
months before their birth, an outrage on their mothers."
Children of drunkards are often "sad and hideous burlesques upon normal
humanity." Business worry may cause unsoundness in the offspring generated
under such conditions.
One father had two sons grow up strong and vigorous, mentally and
physically, while a third son was weak, irresolute, fretful, suspicious
and half demented. The father confessed to his physician that on account
of business troubles he was half crazy and during this time the wife
became pregnant and this half-crazy son was born and the father states
that "he inherits just the state of mind I was then in." Many such cases
could be mentioned. "A sound body and a cheerful mind can only be produced
from healthy stock." Mental peculiarities are produced by unpleasant
influences brought to bear upon the pregnant mother. The story is told of
King James the Sixth of Scotland, that he was constitutionally timid and
showed great terror at a drawn sword. His father was murdered in his
mother's presence while she was pregnant. Children born under the
influence of fear may be troubled with apprehensions of impending
calamity, so intense that they may become insane at last. An instance is
given of "an insane man who always manifested the greatest fear of being
killed and constantly implored those around him not to hurt him." His
mother lived with her drunken husband who often threatened to kill her
with a knife.
Other Causes of Insanity. Imperfect Nutrition.--Whatever tends to weaken
the brain or exhaust the central forces of life must favor the growth of
insanity. The brain is not properly nourished.
Blows and Falls upon the Head.--Sometimes such injuries are forgotten, but
they result infrequently in stealthily developed, but none the less
dangerous, conditions, which may result in the derangement of all mental
faculties. A child should not be struck on the head. Teachers or parents
should not box a child's ears. One author says such a person "is guilty of
slow murder of innocents."
Fright is Another Cause.--Punishing a child by locking it in a dark room
or by "stories of greedy bears or grinning ghosts produces, oftentimes, a
mental shock that makes a child wretched in early life, and drives him
into insanity at a later date." Overtaxing the undeveloped physical powers
is another cause.
[312 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Insanity is most Prevalent among the Working Classes.--Our factories,
shops and stores frequently employ the young of both sexes and they are
overtaxed by day and night and they become feeders of our hospitals for
the insane. Another cause is forced education in the young. Our present
school system tends to break down the body. The work may not be too hard,
but the amount of anxiety and worry, which this work causes in the minds
of sensitive children, tends to enfeeble them. Many children are
sensitive, with nervous temperaments, and they are easily affected by the
strain of mental toil. Delicate children should be kept in the open air
and their physical condition should be considered more than their mental.
Girls, especially, at the age of puberty, should be built up instead of
rushed through a heavy routine of study. Herbert Spencer says: "On old and
young the pressure of modern life puts a still increasing strain. Go where
you will, and before long there comes under your notice cases of children,
or youths of either sex, more or less injured by undue study." Here, to
recover from a state of debility thus produced, a year's vacation has been
found necessary. There you will find a chronic congestion of the brain
that has already lasted many months and threatens to last much longer. Now
you hear of a fever that has resulted from the over excitement, in some
way, brought on at school. And, again, the instance is that of a youth who
has already had to desist from his studies, and who, since he has returned
to them is frequently taken out of his class in a fainting fit.
Social pleasure also tends to weaken the system of parents who produce
nervous and weakened children. Another great cause of insanity is the
unnatural, improper and excessive use of the sexual organs, and diseases
that often come from indiscriminate sexual relations. General paresis is
very often caused by specific disease. I might go on and enlarge upon
these causes, but enough has been written to give warning to those who are
breaking nature's laws.
Classification.--There are many classifications. I will mention only the
leading names, such as Melancholia, Mania. Dementia, General Paresis.
MELANCHOLIA (Sad Mania).--Melancholia is a disease characterized by great
mental depression.
Causes--Predisposition, physical disease, dissipation, work and worry,
shock, brooding. In simple melancholia the mildest attack may be called
the "blues."
ACUTE MELANCHOLIA.--Is generally the result of some mental shock.
CHRONIC MELANCHOLIA is the end of all other forms of mental depression.
All these have their own peculiar manifestations and need a special line
of treatment.
MANIA.--This type of insanity means a raving and furious madness. There
are many cases of this kind. The causes are many and may be the same as
those which produce melancholia. In melancholia the shock, etc., causes
depression, while in the mania the causes of mental injury tend to produce
irritation and excitement. In dementia, the causes of insanity tend to
exhaust the body and to mental failure, while in general Paresis "the
shock of disease comes after long and unwise contact with worry, wine and
women." Insufficient sleep often causes mania. It often follows after
exhausting and irritating fevers. Long continued ill health, together with
worry, etc., may cause it.