An essay on hysteria : being an analysis of its irregular and aggravated forms ; including hysterical hemorrhage, and hysterical ischuria / by Thomas Laycock.

  • Laycock, Thomas, 1812-1876.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on hysteria : being an analysis of its irregular and aggravated forms ; including hysterical hemorrhage, and hysterical ischuria / by Thomas Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    were thus passed. All this time the medicine she took was chiefly purgatives. Blisters were applied to the neck and epigastrium. The bladder was subsequently restored gradually to its proper func- tion, and in little less than three months she wasdischarged in toler- able health, but still often complained of pain in the pelvic region. She menstruated regularly during the attack. Thirteen years after, she was again admitted into the Infirmary for paraplegia, from which she recovered. There was no return of the former disease, allhough the use of the catheter was necessary. Dr. Hastings thinks that the facts of this case proved that the urine was secreted vicariously from the umbilicus, and not transmitted from the bladder along the urachus. III. THIRD SERIES. 13. A female, aged 21 years, the mother of one child, fell so that she fractured two of her ribs, and injured the spine and hip. She remained lame on one side until her death. Twenty or thirty hours after the fall it was found necessary to evacuate the bladder by means of the catheter. Its use was continued for two months, never drawing off more than ten ounces of urine in the twenty-four or forty-eight hours, so that there was a suppression as well as a reten- tion of urine. She was subsequently able to empty the bladder by her own efforts, with great difficulty, once in twenty or thirty hours. About this time she was suddenly attacked with a violent pain at the stomach, which required twelve grains of opium to allay it. This returned on alternate days, and always terminated with sickness and a vomiting of fluid possessing all the properties of healthy urine, with a disagreeable excess of uric acid. This urinous fluid was re- peatedly discharged in the presence of myself and several other persons, and was minutely examined. It was observed, that on the days when this pain and vomiting occurred, no urine was discharged from the bladder ; but on the intermediate days it was secreted, and evacuated in the usual manner. She remained in this state seven weeks, when her bowels became constipated for ten days. A tense tumour of considerable magni- tude occupied the region of the kidneys, and was circumscribed. No fluctuation could be perceived in it. The pain in the stomach ceased spontaneously; and the vomiting was attended with hiccough and a urinous perspiration, which was particularly profuse on the forehead. No urine was discharged from the bladder. After the bowels had been evacuated the tumour rather subsided. The pulse continued at 90, the appetite was good, and she had not ex- perienced emaciation. She soon afterwards died. The cadaveric appearances arc not detailed. This patient being probably hemi- plegic the case is placed in this series, as showing marked lesion of the nervous centre, although functional only, as it would appear from the periodical vomiting. 14. A young lady, slender, but originally healthy and active,