A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . e spasmis much worse if the patient be excited or particularly anxious to do hisbest. In the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 110) are represented threeattempts of a patient to write the name James Ely. At first someresemblance to the letter J is made, but in the second trial it is lessdistinct, and in the third is lost altogether. All of my patients had resorted to various expedients to obviate thespasms, under the idea that they were produced by metallic pens carry-ing off the electricity from the arm ; several had, for a time, made useof quills,
A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . e spasmis much worse if the patient be excited or particularly anxious to do hisbest. In the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 110) are represented threeattempts of a patient to write the name James Ely. At first someresemblance to the letter J is made, but in the second trial it is lessdistinct, and in the third is lost altogether. All of my patients had resorted to various expedients to obviate thespasms, under the idea that they were produced by metallic pens carry-ing off the electricity from the arm ; several had, for a time, made useof quills, or hard rubber pens, and for a time relief had been ob- ANAPEIRATIC PARALYSIS. 809 tained, but the paroxysms soon became as bad as ever. Others hadused very thick pen-holders, and this expedient Was also, for a time,successful. In the end, however, all such efforts to prevent the spasmsproved futile. In one case under my charge, the patient, an engraver, was utterlyincapable of using his burin, although he could write for hours perfect- Fig. lv well, and those who had contracted the disease by excessive writingcould execute any other delicate movements, such as drawing, playingthe piano or violin, threading needles, etc., without inconvenience. Inseveral cases the individuals had acquired the power to write with theleft hand, but before long this was also affected. Dr. G. V. Poore 1 has recently published an interesting memoir onthe affection as produced by excessive writing, and argues that, althoughit is true that patients can execute other actions than writing with theaffected hand, the muscles employed in these movements are not thesame as those used in writing. This is doubtless true of advancedstages of the disease, but it certainly is not so of early periods. I havea patient at this time under my charge who cannot write without greatinconvenience, but who uses a pencil in drawing with the greatest fa-cility and precision. Dr. Frank Smith 2 describes the disease I h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnervoussystem, bookye
