Neurasthenia / Tr. from the 3d French ed. by P. Campbell Smith.

  • Ballet, Gilbert, 1853-1916.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neurasthenia / Tr. from the 3d French ed. by P. Campbell Smith. 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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    emotion. It is possible, then, that the develop- ment of neurasthenia major in a degenerate is, in many instances at least, parallel to the occurrence of neurasthenic symptoms in, say, diabetes, and that both are due to the presence of intoxicating products of abnormal metabolism. Sir Clifford Allbutt, however, in his important article on neurasthenia in his System of Medicine, says that he is not convinced that the neurasthenic state is essentially one in which the vital energy is clogged by the accumulation of waste products in the blood or muscles or both; and that the excretory organs commonly signify no such intoxication.1 It seems probable that what affect the energy are not waste products, but products of improper metabolism. As to the common absence of signs in the excretions, is our know- ledge of metabolic products and of the chemistry of the excretion sufficient to justify us in neglecting indirect evidence of the action of toxins due to defective metabolism. What do we know of the internal secretions, and what evidence can we derive from the urine in, e.g., myxoedema ? The indirect evidence just referred to appears to be as follows. Disorders of metabolism are often accompanied by neurasthenic symptoms (see pp. xvii and 113), which appear and disappear with them in transitory cases, so that there is evidence of a causal connection, evidence which is » System of Medicine, 2nd Ed., Vol. VIII, pp. 733, 734.