The Turkish bath has become an established institution in this
country; men of all classes now use it for sanitary as well as
remedial purposes. Athletes of various descriptions find it invaluable
in "training," and all the distinguished jockeys and light weights
keep themselves in condition by its use.
It was thought probable that what was good for man might also be good
for the horse, and the fact has been proved. Messrs. Pickford, the
eminent carriers, in their hospital for horses at Finchley, have had a
bath in operation over eleven years, and find the horses derive great
benefit from its use. The bath is put in operation three days a week,
and is administered to over twenty horses in this time. The value of
the bath having been thus proved, it is rather strange that it has not
been more generally adopted by the large carrying firms. However, the
Great Northern Railway Company at their new hospital for horses at
Totteridge, are erecting a very complete Turkish bath. It consists of
three rooms. First, a large wash room or grooming room, from which is
entered the first hot room, or tepidarium, from 140° to 150° Fahr.;
from this room, the horse, after being thoroughly acclimated, can, if
necessary, pass to the hottest room, or calidarium, from 160° to 170°
Fahr., and without any turning round can pass on into the grooming and
washing room again. This last room is slightly heated from the two
other rooms, and in each are stocks in which the animal can he
fastened if required. The heating is done most economically by
Constantine's convoluted stove, and thorough ventilation is secured
from the large volume of hot air constantly supplied, which passes
through the baths, and as it becomes vitiated is drawn off by
specially designed outlets. The wash room is supplied with hot and
cold water, which can, of course, be mixed to any required
temperature.--_Building News._
[Illustration]
||
|+-------------------------------------------------------+
|+-------------------++---__-------____------------__---+|
|| ||FOUL AIR FOUL AIR FOUL AIR||
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|| || ============== ||
|| / / ||
|| / / 1ST HOT ROOM ||
|| / / ||
|| / / ============== ||
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/ =======+ || ||
/ || || CURTAIN||
WASHING ROOM|| |+=========================== =||
\ || || ||
\ =======+ || ||
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|| \ \ ============== ||
|| \ \ ||
|| \ \ 2ND HOT ROOM || FRESH
|| \ \ || / AIR
|| || ============== ||==
|| || +======|| |
|| || | WARM || |
|| ||FOUL AIR FOUL AIR| AIR || |
|+-------------------++---__--+===+---------__----------+|==
|+----------------------------|_|_|---------------------+|
|| | ||||| | ||
|| | ||||| | ||
|| |============ S T O K E R Y ||
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|| |+-----------------------------------||
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* * * * *
MIRYACHIT, A NEWLY DESCRIBED DISEASE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND
ITS ANALOGUES.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read before the New York Neurological Society,
February 5, 1884.]
By WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D., Surgeon-General, U.S. Army (Retired
List); Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous System in the New
York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital.
In a very interesting account of a journey from the Pacific Ocean
through Asia to the United States, by Lieutenant B.H. Buckingham and
Ensigns George C. Foulk and Walter McLean,[2] United States navy, I
find an affection of the nervous system described which, on account of
its remarkable characteristics, as well as by reason of certain known
analogies, I think should be brought to the special notice of the
medical profession. I quote from the work referred to, the following
account of this disease. The party is on the Ussuri River not far from
its junction with the Amur in Eastern Siberia: "While we were walking
on the bank here we observed our messmate, the captain of the general
staff (of the Russian army), approach the steward of the boat
suddenly, and, without any apparent reason or remark, clap his hands
before his face; instantly the steward clapped _his_ hands in the same
manner, put on an angry look, and passed on. The incident was somewhat
curious, as it involved a degree of familiarity with the steward
hardly to have been expected. After this we observed a number of queer
performances of the steward, and finally comprehended the situation.
It seemed that he was afflicted with a peculiar mental or nervous
disease, which forced him to imitate everything suddenly presented to
his senses. Thus, when the captain slapped the paddle-box suddenly in
the presence of the steward, the latter instantly gave it a similar
thump; or, if any noise were made suddenly, he seemed compelled
against his will to imitate it instantly, and with remarkable
accuracy. To annoy him, some of the passengers imitated pigs grunting,
or called out absurd names; others clapped their hands and shouted,
jumped, or threw their hats on the deck suddenly, and the poor
steward, suddenly startled, would echo them all precisely, and
sometimes several consecutively. Frequently he would expostulate,
begging people not to startle him, and again would grow furiously
angry, but even in the midst of his passion he would helplessly
imitate some ridiculous shout or motion directed at him by his
pitiless tormenters. Frequently he shut himself up in his pantry,
which was without windows, and locked the door, but even there he
could be heard answering the grunts, shouts, or pounds on the bulkhead
outside. He was a man of middle age, fair physique, rather intelligent
in facial expression, and without the slightest indication in
appearance of his disability. As we descended the bank to go on board
the steamer, some one gave a loud shout and threw his cap on the
ground; looking about for the steward, for the shout was evidently
made for his benefit, we saw him violently throw his cap, with a
shout, into a chicken-coop, into which he was about to put the result
of his foraging expedition among the houses of the stanitza.
[Footnote 2: "Observations upon the Korean Coast, Japanese-Korean
Ports, and Siberia, made during a journey from the Asiatic
Station to the United States, through Siberia to Europe, June 3
to September 8, 1882." Published by the United States Navy
Department, Washington, 1883, pp. 51.]
"We afterward witnessed an incident which illustrated the extent of
his disability. The captain of the steamer, running up to him,
suddenly clapping his hands at the same time, accidentally slipped and
fell hard on the deck; without having been touched by the captain, the
steward instantly clapped his bands and shouted, and then, in
powerless imitation, he too fell as hard and almost precisely in the
same manner and position as the captain. In speaking of the steward's
disorder, the captain of the general staff stated that it was not
uncommon in Siberia; that he had seen a number of cases of it, and
that it was commonest about Yakutsk, where the winter cold is extreme.
Both sexes were subject to it, but men much less than women. It was
known to Russians by the name of 'miryachit'".
So far as I am aware--and I have looked carefully through several
books of travel in Siberia--no account of this curious disease has
been hitherto published.
The description given by the naval officers at once, however, brings
to mind the remarks made by the late Dr. George M. Beard, before the
meeting of the American Neurological Association in 1880, relative to
the "Jumpers" or "Jumping Frenchmen" of Maine and northern New
Hampshire.[3]
[Footnote 3: "Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases," vol. vii.,
1880, p. 487.]
In June, 1880, Dr. Beard visited Moosehead Lake, found the "Jumpers,"
and experimented with them. He ascertained that whatever order was
given them was at once obeyed. Thus, one of the jumpers who was
sitting in a chair with a knife in his hand was told to throw it, and
he threw it quickly, so that it stuck in a beam opposite; at the same
time he repeated the order to throw it with a cry of alarm not unlike
that of hysteria or epilepsy. He also threw away his pipe, which he
was filling with tobacco, when he was slapped upon the shoulder. Two
jumpers standing near each other were told to strike, and they struck
each other very forcibly. One jumper, when standing by a window, was
suddenly commanded by a person on the other side of the window to
jump, and he jumped up half a foot from the floor, repeating the
order. When the commands are uttered in a quick, loud voice, the
jumper repeats the order. When told to strike he strikes, when told to
throw he throws whatever he may happen to have in his hand. Dr. Beard
tried this power of repetition with the first part of the first line
of Virgil's "Æneid" and the first part of the first line of Homer's
"Iliad," and out-of-the-way words of the English language with which
the jumper could not be familiar, and he repeated or echoed the sound
of the word as it came to him in a quick, sharp voice, at the same
time he jumped, or struck, or threw, or raised his shoulders, or made
some other violent muscular motion. They could not help repeating the
word or sound that came from the person that ordered them, any more
than they could help striking, dropping, throwing, jumping, or
starting; all of these phenomena were indeed but parts of the general
condition known as jumping. It was not necessary that the sound should
come from a human being; any sudden or unexpected noise, as the
explosion of a gun or pistol, the falling of a window, or the slamming
of a door--provided it was unexpected and loud enough--would cause
these jumpers to exhibit some one or all of these phenomena. One of
these jumpers came very near cutting his throat, while shaving, on
hearing a door slam. They had been known to strike their fists against a
red-hot stove, to jump into the fire and into water. They could not
help striking their best friend if near them when ordered. The noise
of a steam whistle was especially obnoxious to them. One of these
jumpers, when taking some bromide of sodium in a tumbler, was told to
throw it, and he dashed the tumbler upon the floor. It was dangerous
to startle them in any way when they had an ax or an knife in their
hands. All of the jumpers agreed that it tired them to be jumped, and
they dreaded it, but they were constantly annoyed by their companions.
From this description it will at once, I think, be perceived that
there are striking analogies between "miryachit" and this disorder of
the "Jumping Frenchmen" of Maine. Indeed, it appears to me that, if
the two affections were carefully studied, it would be found that they
were identical, or that, at any rate, the phenomena of the one could
readily be developed into those of the others. It is not stated that
the subjects of miryachit do what they are told to do. They require an
example to reach their brains through the sense of sight or that of
hearing, whereas the "Jumpers" do not apparently perform an act which
is executed before them, but they require a command. It seems,
however, that a "Jumper" starts whenever any sudden noise reaches his
ears.
In both classes of cases a suggestion of some kind is required, and
then the act takes place independently of the will. There is another
analogous condition known by the Germans as _Schlaftrunkenheit_, and
to English and American neurologists as somnolentia, or
sleep-drunkenness. In this state an individual, on being suddenly
awakened, commits some incongruous act of violence, ofttimes a murder.
Sometimes this appears to be excited by a dream, but in others no such
cause could be discovered.
Thus, a sentry fell asleep during his watch, and, being suddenly
aroused by the officer in command, attacked the latter with his sword,
and would have killed him but for the interposition of the bystanders.
The result of the medical examination was that the act was
involuntary, being the result of a violent confusion of mind
consequent upon the sudden awaking from a profound sleep. Other cases
are cited by Wharton and Stille in their work on medical
jurisprudence, by Hoffbauer, and by myself in "Sleep and its
Derangements."
The following cases among others have occurred in my own experience:
A gentleman was roused one night by his wife, who heard the
street-door bell ring. He got up, and, without paying attention to
what she said, dragged the sheets off of the bed, tore them hurriedly
into strips, and proceeded to tie the pieces together. She finally
succeeded in bringing him to himself, when he said he had thought the
house was on fire, and he was providing means for their escape. He did
not recollect having had any dream of the kind, but was under the
impression that the idea had occurred to him at the instant of his
awaking.
Another was suddenly aroused from a sound sleep by the slamming of a
window-shutter by the wind. He sprang instantly from his bed, and,
seizing a chair that was near, hurled it with all his strength against
the window. The noise of the breaking of glass fully awakened him. He
explained that he imagined some one was trying to get into the room
and had let his pistol fall on the floor, thereby producing the noise
which had startled him.
In another case a man dreamed that he heard a voice telling him to
jump out of the window. He at once arose, threw open the sash, and
jumped to the ground below, fortunately only a distance of about ten
feet, so that he was not injured beyond receiving a violent shock.
Such a case as this appears to me to be very similar to those
described by Dr. Beard in all its essential aspects.
A few years ago I had a gentleman under my charge who would attempt to
execute any order given him while he was asleep by a person
whispering into his ear. Thus, if told in this way to shout, he
shouted as loud as he could; if ordered to get up, he at once jumped
from the bed; if directed to repeat certain words, he said them, and
so on.
I am not able to give any certain explanation of the phenomena of
miryachit or of the "Jumpers," or of certain of those cases of
sleep-drunkenness which seem to be of like character. But they all
appear to be due to the fact a motor impulse is excited by perceptions
without the necessary concurrence of the volition of the individual to
cause the discharge. They are, therefore, analogous to reflex actions,
and especially to certain epileptic paroxysms due to reflex
irritations. It would seem as though the nerve cells were very much in
the condition of a package of dynamite or nitro glycerin, in which a
very slight impression is sufficient to effect a discharge of nerve
force. They differ, however, from the epileptic paroxysm in the fact
that the discharge is consonant with the perception--which is in these
cases an irritation--and is hence an apparently logical act, whereas
in epilepsy the discharge is more violent, is illogical, and does not
cease with the cessation of the irritation.
Certainly the whole subject is of sufficient importance to demand the
careful study of competent observers.
* * * * *