A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . the jaws are tightly closed, and the gaze fixed (Fig. 104). Respirationis entirely suspended, and the heart beats rapidly, sometimes as fre-quently as one hundred and sixty per minute. Then the body is slowlybowed, so that the head and heels alone touch the bed, and is so rigidand strongly arched that no ordinary force, such as a powerful mancan exert, suffices to overcome the tonicity of the muscles. In about aminute from the beginning of the rigidity, the spasm suddenly relaxes,and with a long-drawn inspiration the paroxysm ends—to be again
A treatise on the diseases of the nervous system . the jaws are tightly closed, and the gaze fixed (Fig. 104). Respirationis entirely suspended, and the heart beats rapidly, sometimes as fre-quently as one hundred and sixty per minute. Then the body is slowlybowed, so that the head and heels alone touch the bed, and is so rigidand strongly arched that no ordinary force, such as a powerful mancan exert, suffices to overcome the tonicity of the muscles. In about aminute from the beginning of the rigidity, the spasm suddenly relaxes,and with a long-drawn inspiration the paroxysm ends—to be again re- 788 CEREBRO-SriNAL DISEASES. sumed in a few minutes with a like sequence. In the accompanying-woodcut (Fig. 105) is an exact representation of this patient when thetetanic spasm is at its height. « Fig. In this case there is a distinct aura starting from the left ovary, andstrong pressure exerted upon this organ suffices generally, though notalways, to cut short the series of paroxysms. Under the name of demonomania many cases of hystero-epilepsyhave been described, and the disease, like chorea, has at times prevailedepidemically. At Loudun, in France, it led to the death at the stakeof Urbain Grandier, the nuns, who were its subjects, accusing him intheir delirium of having bewitched them. At Marseilles, Father LouisGaufridi, a man of education and of strict morality, was accused by twoUrsuline nuns of having debauched them through diabolical the, time of the accusation, these nuns, one of them only nineteenyears old, were suffering from attacks characterized by hallucinationsand illusions, fearful epileptiform and cataleptiform convulsions, anddelirious ravings—all of which were ascribed to the devil moved and in-stigated by Louis Gaufridi. At first, the accused denied
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectnervoussystem, bookye
