Case of accumulation of hair, etc. in the stomach : with remarks / by C.S.W. Cobbold.

  • Cobbold, C. S. W.
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of accumulation of hair, etc. in the stomach : with remarks / by C.S.W. Cobbold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    Reprinted from The Journal of Mental Science April, 1886. 2^ CASE OF ACCUMULATION OF HAIR, ETC., IN THE STOMACH, WITH REMARKS. By C. S. W. COBBOLD, M.D., Medical Superintendent of the Earlswood Asylum. A somewhat inaccurate account of the inquest held in the I following case went the round of the newspapers. The true : facts are these :— W. A. H., aged 18 years, was admitted into Earlswood Asylum on IMay 31st, 1883. His parents stated that at 18 months of age he had an >l accident, which was followed by epileptic fits during the three i following years ; lie had also been idiotic from that time, and had had hy- drocephalus. On admission it was noted that the patient was tall, ill— inourished, and cachectic; feeble and stooping in gait and carriage. The ihead was large and elongated, with marked bulging in the frontal rregion; the incisor teeth were notched and the palate narrow. The mental powers were very feeble ; there was no power of speech nor of understanding the simplest question ; saliva continually dribbled from the mouth, the calls of nature were disregarded, and the patient could neither dress, undress, nor wash himself. He had the habits of putting his fingers in his ears, picking clothing to pieces, and occasionally 'pulling out one or two hairs at a time from his head. During the first few days of his residence in the asylum it was difficult to get him to take food, but his appetite afterwards was usually ravenous, though it occasionally failed for a few days at a time. He always fed himself with his hands, making a great mess with his food, but refusing to be fed by others, or to use even a spoon himself. Altogether his mental condition more resembled dementia than idiocy. In accordance with our system of industrial training and the patient's habit of picking cloth- ing, &c., he was sent for several hours daily to join the cocoa-nut fibre picking-class, but he was never able to follow the occupation DBefully. Owing to this, and to his feeble health, his attendance at the workshops was entirely discontinued for a year before his death. He was frequently under treatment in the infirmary for general de- bility ; no definite cause for this could be ascertained, and it was ascribed to defective nerve-function. During the year 1883 he had three epileptic fits, in one of which he broke his left humerus; the