SHAKING PALSY.
Shaking Palsy, or Paralysis Agitans, is an affection dependent upon degenerative changes in the nervous centres. It is characterized by a tremulous agitation, or continual shaking, beginning in the hands, arms or head, and gradually extending itself over the entire body. The disease progresses slowly, but when far advanced the agitation is violent, and the patient swallows and masticates his food with great difficulty. In an advanced stage of the disease, the body becomes bent forward, and the chin almost touches the breast-bone. The tremor, which early in the disease only occurred during the time the patient was awake, now continues during sleep, and not infrequently the agitation becomes so violent as to waken the sufferer.
GENERAL TREATMENT OF PARALYSIS.
The indications of treatment for the various forms of paralysis are to remove the causes, if these can be determined, and rouse the functions of the paralyzed parts. Measures should be adopted to remedy the morbid conditions upon which this affection depends. Keep the skin clean and healthy, promote the circulation of the blood, especially in the paralyzed limbs, and encourage healthy nutrition. These ends may be best attained by the daily employment of stimulating baths and frictions upon the surface. As much regular exercise as the patient can bear without fatigue should be taken in order to favor the preservation of the appetite and strength. Care should also be taken that the bowels are evacuated regularly every day. The circulation through, and consequently the nutrition of, the palsied muscles may be aided by having a strong healthy person knead and manipulate them. These manual movements upon the surface of the body will often excite muscular sensibility, similar to that awakened by a weak Faradic current. The internal medicines should be such as to regulate the general functions of the system. The use of these remedies must be directed by the skill and experience of those who are professionally qualified to administer hem.
When the patient has been able to be under our personal care at the Invalids' Hotel, we have found the employment of mechanical movements and manipulations, applied by means of a variety of machinery, employed in this Institution, together with the use of the equalizer, or large dry cupping, or vacuum apparatus, to be of the greatest benefit. These several machines and apparatus furnish a perfect system of physical training, thus rendering valuable aid in the cure of many forms of obstinate chronic diseases. A few of these machines are shown in Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14; also see page 32 of Appendix.
The general practitioner often endeavors to overcome the inertia of the nerve-centers and nerves by means of specific irritants, with the view of exciting the power-producing function, of compelling the weakened and disabled centers to evolve more power. By such stimulation and forcing, he places a burden on the weakest parts. The compulsory and ineffectual endeavor of the weak parts to act in response to such stimulation is very liable to make undue drafts upon the capacity to act, which only end in exhaustion of the little remaining power instead of its re-enforcement. Cases which were previously curable by direct and appropriate means, are thus forever placed beyond the reach of remedies. No powerful stimulating or depressing medicines are indicated in any of the various forms of the affection. In paralysis it should be our aim to improve local and general nutrition, to relieve local congestions and inflammations, to produce absorption of deposited matters, and to force an abundance of blood through palsied muscles, from which they may derive a proper supply of nutriment, and to which they may give up the products of waste. All this can be accomplished by massage, mechanical movements, regulation of the atmospheric pressure on the body, baths, and proper physical culture.
In paralysis, there is a diminution or total loss of the contractile property of the muscles to which the affected nerve fibers are distributed; consequently the capillaries and small veins are not compressed, as in health, and the blood is not forced on through them towards the heart; hence there is a backing-up of the circulation, passive congestion, and all the evils incident to that condition ensue.
