A lieutenant was lying with fever in a farmhouse in upper Alsace, watching from his window the shelling of a battery about 400 meters away. He saw that the enemy was to reach the farm with shell in due course of time. The shells came nearer, say up to about 100 meters, and the lieutenant was able to reckon closely when he would be reached. He was quite defenseless and unable to get to safety. At the very moment, he thinks, when the shells began to strike the house, the lieutenant lost consciousness from fear. He was unconscious an hour before being carried to the cellar. The shelling lasted several hours more. Immediately upon coming to the patient found that, although he bore no external wound, both legs and the right arm were paralyzed.
There were never any signs of organic disorder. The patient recovered completely with purely suggestive treatment.
Incentives to paraplegia.
Case 241. (Russel, August, 1917.)
A young Canadian paid $150 to have his teeth repaired to be accepted for service and then married. The wife became pregnant. He reported sick after falling out on a route march in a heavy rainstorm. The medical officer said he had weak feet and ankles. He lay around the huts, was excused duty, and got worse in the wet and cold. He was admitted to hospital and came to Russel’s wards on a stretcher showing paralysis of both legs with slight power of movement at the knee. Stroking anesthesia to pin prick from the knee down. Reflexes not abnormal. He walked back upstairs!
According to Russel the wife’s pregnancy had furnished a sufficient incentive, and the M. O.’s suggestion had fallen on fertile soil.
CAMPTOCORMIA (MLLE. ROSANOFF-SALOFF)
WOUNDED SEPTEMBER 3, 1914. THROWN INTO AIR BY SHELL-BURST; UNCONSCIOUS. FEBRUARY, 1915: PLASTER JACKET, 3 WEEKS; SECOND JACKET, 3 WEEKS. CURED. SENT TO GRAND-PALAIS.