A man, 32, was buried by a shell and bruised about the back, August 2, 1916. He was bedfast until February, 1917. Every attempt to move the legs brought on tremors. He was then allowed up; but the attempt to walk caused one foot to knock the other, and his ankles became bruised, necessitating cotton wool pads for feet.
He was admitted to Maghull, June 12, with one leg crossed over the other and the thigh adductors spastic, especially on the right.
The fatigue treatment was carried out in dorsal decubitus, each leg being pulled by a man, and the separation repeated when necessary. Four hours a day for three days of this work finally reduced the spasm so that the patient was able to walk with assistance. On the sixth day he walked a mile without assistance. The spasm has not returned.
Re leg contractures, Bérard got successful results by continuous extension combined with injections of 1 per cent novocain into the sciatic nerve trunk and the contractured muscles. According to Babinski and Froment, there ought to be an almost certain cure of any genuine hysterical state. They quote the observations of Souques, Meige, Albert Charpentier, Clovis Vincent, Roussy, and Léri as proving this claim.
The Reeve method, so far as it is psychotherapeutic, bears a resemblance to Clovis Vincent’s first stage of what the poilu calls torpillage, namely, the stage of crisis and of intensive reëducation. But Clovis Vincent uses in his direct and forcible reëducation the galvanic current.
Bullet wound of neck: Hysterical torticollis. Treatment by induced fatigue.
Case 492. (Reeve, September, 1917.)
A soldier, 20, had a bullet pass through the back of the neck, July 10, 1916, and returned to his dépôt surgically well October 1. A fortnight later a Zeppelin raid turned his troop out in the middle of the night, and on the morrow the man’s neck was twisted around and inclined upon the left shoulder.
Treatment followed in various hospitals, with fixation in the corrected position by plaster of Paris but without result. The patient was admitted to Maghull, April 18, 1917, with spasm of left trapezius and right sternomastoid muscles. Under hypnosis the deformity could be easily corrected. Unfortunately, it returned.