A system of practical medicine . no bedsores. Thereflexes are generally exaggerated, but clonus is rarely met with. Occa-sionally there is paralysis of the bladder. In a jiatient under my carethe urine dribbled for months, and this was not the overfloAV of disten-tion, because when the catheter was used the bladder was always foundempty. There is frequently contracture in hysterical paraplegia. Thelimbs arc usually rigid and in extreme extension. Gowers says that inhysterical rigidity the legs are almost never in a state of flexion. SYMPTOMS. 701 but such cases do occur, as was seen in the cas
A system of practical medicine . no bedsores. Thereflexes are generally exaggerated, but clonus is rarely met with. Occa-sionally there is paralysis of the bladder. In a jiatient under my carethe urine dribbled for months, and this was not the overfloAV of disten-tion, because when the catheter was used the bladder was always foundempty. There is frequently contracture in hysterical paraplegia. Thelimbs arc usually rigid and in extreme extension. Gowers says that inhysterical rigidity the legs are almost never in a state of flexion. SYMPTOMS. 701 but such cases do occur, as was seen in the case of a child of thirteenyears whom I saw some years ago. The legs were strongly flexed, asshown in Fig. 78, from a sketch made by the late J. M. Keating,and remained in this condition for many months. Mitchell ^ has re-ported a case of extreme hysterical contraction of the legs. The eyemuscles may be paralyzed ; ptosis is not an uncommon symptom (seeFig. 79), and occasionally the muscles of the ball are also paralyzed. Fig. Hysterical ptosis. Some of the facial and neck muscles may also be paralyzed. Con-tractures exist, either in connection with paralysis or without it. Thecontractures of hysterical origin usually occur suddenly, after emotion,shock, or traumatism. They are very difficult to overcome, becausethe antagonistic muscles are rigid, as well as those which are in astate of contraction. Sensation is often disordered in the contractedlimb. The contractures may be made to disappear by that contractures are sometimes exceedingly painful, but,as a rule, they are not. Unless of long standing, they invariably relaxunder ether or chloroform, and they may or may not relax duringsleep. Mitchell ^ considers that there are two forms of hysterical con-tracture—one apt to be local and limited, and not followed by organicmuscular changes; the other apt to affect two or more limbs and almostevery muscle of the trunk, and prone to result in muscular
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