Chorea ("St. Vitus's Dance") is caused by various irritatations, and dysmenorrhoea can be such a cause. If a person is disposed to hysteria by neurotic inheritance, idleness, sedentary habits, vicious practices, excessive development of the emotions, any affection of the uterus or its appendages will greatly aggravate the outbreaks. The same is true in neurasthenia; and uterine disorders can directly cause neurasthenia, a condition described in another chapter. Migraine is an extremely severe form of headache which arises from various excitations, and uterine disturbances are among the causes.
Insanity frequently appears in women at puberty, soon after marriage, during pregnancy or lactation, and at the menopause; at these periods disposed women are especially prone to outbreaks of insanity. Irritation and exhaustion from diseases of the pelvic organs are potent factors in bringing on insanity, although these conditions may coexist independently of each other. Symptoms should not be mistaken for causes, but pelvic diseases at least aggravate a tendency toward mental unbalance.
In an article like this it is not expedient to speak of treatment, but the conditions are described in outline so that the spiritual adviser may recognise the need of medical aid and suggest its employment. A woman suffering from pelvic disorders should be relieved from a labourious or responsible office until she has been cured of her disease, in her own interest and especially in the interest of those affected by her condition.
AUSTIN ÓMALLEY.
XXI
CHRONIC DISEASE AND RESPONSIBILITY
It is often of great practical importance to bear in mind that a number of affections, commonly not serious in themselves at the beginning, and sometimes giving very few external symptoms, may make the mental condition of the individual suffering from them utterly incapable of meeting grave responsibilities. This is especially true with regard to such positions as that occupied by the Superior of a religious community who may, during the course of an ailment that has a tendency to affect the mental condition, do things that involve the community financially, or make life so uncomfortable for their subjects as to cause them to abandon the religious life. Some of these ailments are very insidious and may develop utterly apart from all anticipation in persons that were previously healthy. The weight of responsibility itself may, by impairing the general health, bring on an aggravation of a previously mild chronic condition that will cause distinct mental deterioration, yet without the absolute production of such disturbance of intellection as will be readily recognised by those that are not brought intimately in contact with the individual.
Such cases are not uncommon in history. A distinguished specialist in mental diseases called attention, in the London Lancet not long ago, to the case of Nicias, the Greek general who was in charge of the Athenian expedition against Syracuse. Nicias undoubtedly had a genius for war and for politics when in normal health. Some of the mistakes committed by him, though, are of an order that indicate a lapse of mental control at certain times. Details given by a number of Greek historians point to the existence in Nicias of [{246}] symptoms of chronic nephritis, which at periods of great responsibility became exacerbated with consequent interference with normal intellection. The same authority points to certain otherwise inexplicable political mistakes in the life of Napoleon III. as due to the existence in him of a low-grade nephritis, consequent upon the presence of stone in the kidney. After his abdication, during his life in England, he had to be operated upon for this condition, and the calculi found had manifestly been in existence for many years.
Even more important for the sake of the individual himself than for those he is in contact with is the recognition of his pathological condition. Nothing is more likely to cause kidney disease to grow rapidly worse than responsibilities heavier than the individual is accustomed to. When, then, there are symptoms of nephritis it is inadvisable for the patient to be made Superior, and if the symptoms develop after his appointment or election he should be relieved of his responsibilities, at least to a considerable degree. There are a number of cases on record in which failure to realise the necessity for this mode of action has been a cause of great unhappiness in religious communities, and not infrequently a shortening of a very precious life that might otherwise have been spared for long years of usefulness in some less demanding position. It is not impossible that paresis should develop in the Superior of a religious community. The disease is extremely rare among clergymen generally, and the statistics of asylums show that it is rarest of all among Catholic clergymen. Should it occur, however, it must constitute a quite sufficient reason either for a change of Superiors, or for the institution of such other safeguards as may, according to the special religious institute, be provided in order to prevent serious evil.