Brachial monoplegia, hysterical (or feigned?). Found able to descend ladder with arms only.
Case 573. (Claude, July, 1916.)
Claude had a case of a soldier with right-sided brachial monoplegia, which had lasted for 18 months and defied efforts to cure. There was a question of simulation, and Claude handed the case over to Vincent.
The case came on service, June 20, and was seen June 21. He was then treated and found able to descend a ladder applied to a wall with the help of his arms only. On June 24, he was found able to lift a weight of 10 kilos, and could now write with the right hand, although he had been writing only with his left. This man had looked like a simulator to many physicians. He may have been a simulator or an hysteric. In any case, he was cured.
Vicissitudes of treatment of hysterical brachial monoparesis (shell burial).
Case 574. (Vincent, July, 1917.)
A French private was buried in a trench upon the explosion of a large shell, November, 1914. He said he had had a “fracture of the occiput” and had fainted away without regaining consciousness for several hours.
He was evacuated to Dunkirk, then Saint Nasire, and then to Sables-d’Olonne. He showed no paralysis or paresis of limbs. During the first month, he had violent pains in the head, spells and vomiting. There was a slight aphasic disorder. He was treated by cupping upon the head and by applications of ice.
After the visit of the inspector general, he was sent to Nantes to be trephined. Dr. Mathieu regarded an operation as useless. He was treated with bromides and the faradic current by Miraillé, applied to the right arm, which had become paretic.