The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English / or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred / and Fifty Thousand

by Ray Vaughn Pierce

The young, in unnatural indulgence of the sexual passions, waste the vigor and energy of maturity. Sexual excesses must be put down as among the most prolific causes of this terrible malady. Ignorance shields no one from the consequences of violations of the laws of health.

The passion for wealth with its ceaseless toil, continuous strain, and rapid exhaustion of the nerve forces, usually brings its devotee into the same condition of discord as does the abuse of a stimulant. For a time the system will repair and bolster up the weakness, but the longer the day of reckoning is postponed, the more serious and terrible is the collapse.

Such individuals need only an exposure to cold, or an over indulgence of some kind, to suddenly precipitate a paralysis.

General Paralysis. This term is applied to paralysis affecting the arms and legs. In this form of paralysis there is generally more loss of motion than of sensation, and the mind is usually more or less affected.

Hemiplegia, or paralysis of one side of the body, is generally spoken of as a "stroke of palsy." Sometimes only one extremity, the arm, is affected. Only occasionally is the face involved. In the majority of cases the mind is affected, the memory being poor, the sufferer becoming melancholy, peevish, and fretful.

In paralysis of the right side, there is sometimes a curious forgetfulness or misplacement of language, the patient being unable to think of words to express his thoughts. This condition is called aphasia. It is usually the result of some injury or disease of the brain, almost invariably the side of the brain opposite the affected half of the body. In some cases it is due to a wasting, or softening, of the brain substance, on account of insufficient nourishment, a deficient supply of blood; whilst in others, it is due to just the opposite condition, an excess of blood, producing rupture of some blood-vessel, transudations, and pressure.

Paraplegia, or paralysis of the lower half of the body, is the result of disease of the spinal marrow. The paralysis may occur suddenly, but, in the majority of cases, it comes on slowly and insidiously, with weakness and numbness of the feet and legs, or with tingling and a sensation resembling that produced by ants creeping on the surface of the skin. By degrees the weakness increases, until there is complete loss of both motion and sensation in the feet and legs. The lower bowel and bladder are generally involved, and as a result, the patient suffers from constipation, and retention and dribbling of urine. Although completely paralyzed, the patient is often tormented with involuntary movements and cramps in the affected muscles.

Paraplegia may be caused by various injuries of the spinal cord; by congestion, degeneration, or hemorrhage; by pressure from thickening of the sheath of the cord, or from tumors, or from disease of the bones and cartilages of the spinal column. Paraplegia may also be produced through reflex action, by an irritation, or injury to some organ or part of the body distant from the spinal cord; thus, irritation of the skin, or of the bowels from the presence of worms, or disease of the bladder or of the womb, may produce paraplegia.

LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA.

Locomotor ataxia, or creeping palsy, is also called progressive paralysis. This affection consists of a disease of the nervous matter in the posterior columns of the spinal cord. It usually affects first the lower part of the cord, and those portions of the nerve matter that supply the muscles of the legs. In other cases it first affects the portions of the spinal cord that supply the arms. In most cases of this disease there is an early stage in which the patient suffers from "lightning pains," as they are called. These are of a severe, stabbing, boring character, very sudden in their onset, and at times so serious as to have induced suicide. These paroxysms, in the milder form of the disease, are not so severe, and are readily controlled by anodynes. They may affect the stomach, and be mistaken for dyspepsia, or the rectum, and be taken for fissure or piles. At times they affect the bladder, when the symptoms are not unlike those of stone or cancer. In many cases we find the patient has been treated for a long period of years for rheumatism, sciatica, or neuralgia, when the real disease has been this progressive paralysis in its earlier stage. Sometimes the disease takes the form of spermatorrhea or impotency; in other cases it is manifested in weak eyes, disturbances of vision, or cross-eyes. Sooner or later, there appears the peculiar paralysis of the disease, which consists of more or less numbness of the feet and legs, and, in the later stages, of the hands and arms, sometimes of the face. As a rule, however, the patient finds difficulty in properly maintaining his balance, and in walking his movements are tottering, like a man partially intoxicated. It is difficult for him to maintain his balance and walk with his eyes closed. If the arms are affected, their movements are uncertain. In guiding a needle or in buttoning or unbuttoning the clothing, there is an inability to move the hand with rapidity and certainty, or to any portion of the face or body if the eyes be closed. The eyes and attention must be constantly directed to the motion that is about to be performed, or it is imperfectly done. The brain centres in this case supply the weakened action of the spinal cord, and the stimulus to the muscles is directed by the intelligence instead of being automatic, as in health, and due to spinal action. Still later, the voluntary movements become spasmodic or jerking. The neuralgic pains often become very distressing; there is often a sense of constriction around the limbs or body, as if they were encircled with tight cords. In extreme cases locomotion becomes impossible, the patient is unable to bring the hand to the mouth, and the speech may become impaired, articulation being difficult and imperfect. In all cases there is more or less loss of sensation in the lower limbs, the patient generally being usable to distinguish between two points and one, even when the two, are a considerable distance apart. The inability to feel the contact of the ground or floor with the feet occasions the difficulty in walking. The causes of this disease are somewhat obscure, but unquestionably exposure to cold and dampness, and over-mental work, are largely instrumental in its production. Scrofula and syphilis favor its development, while abuse of the nervous system, such as results from over-indulgence of the animal and reproductive instincts, are frequent sources of the nervous changes that lead to ataxia.