It seems that four months before, while mounting sentry at night, marauding gypsies had felled him by a blow on the head from behind. He had returned to duty after a day or two and was now expecting to be moved to France. He said that while sitting with a friend, he began to feel giddy, turned a somersault, and fell unconscious; and that on coming to, his mind was clear but everything was dark. For ten days he had been blind, although once he could see his parents, who visited him in hospital, almost clearly. His appearance under examination strongly recalled that of a blind man. He was induced to read some large print, then smaller print, and finally very small print. He then lapsed into blindness.
He remembered that before enlisting, he had trained in a smithy, and heard that blacksmiths often went blind at the forge.
Bareback riding: Spasmodic neurosis (similar ANTEBELLUM episode).
Case 298. (Schuster, December, 1914.)
A soldier, 32, had to do a long stretch of riding bareback. As a result, he later suffered from tonic muscular spasms whenever he had to exert himself seriously, especially whenever he had to move his legs and when sudden movements or sudden strong contacts were made. The attack appeared to be reflexly dependent on the pain. The case is regarded as one of the Wernicke Crampusneurosen, a disease somewhat related with hysteria.
A condition somewhat like the one developed in the war had occurred in this man at the age of seventeen after a drenching, but the attack was at that time much milder. He had, however, frequently had cramps in his legs.
ANTEBELLUM spasm of hands, functional.
Case 299. (Hewat, March, 1917.)
A boy, 19, had been passed as fit for laboring work at home. He had been a farm boy from 14. Once at 17 he had developed whilst working amongst turnips in wet weather, pain in the hands, which got worse and was followed by pains in legs, arm, and neck, that kept him in bed a week, and from work ten days. Even on returning to work, his hands were swollen, though he was able to drive a horse. The fingers had been somewhat firmly flexed on the palms ever since this illness at 17.