A lady with violent hysterical cough was chloroformed by Risel of Messeberg131 for fourteen days at every access of the cough, and another for eight days. In both the symptoms were conquered. Nitrite of amyl is useful in similar cases.
131 Allg. Med. Centralzeitung, Oct. 9, 1878.
Graily Hewitt132 reports a case of hysterical vomiting of ten months' duration, caused by displacement of the uterus, and cured by reposition of that organ. The same authority, in a paper read to the London Congress, advanced the opinion that the exciting cause of attacks of hysteria and hystero-epilepsy was a distortion of the uterus produced by a flexion of the organ upon itself, either forward or backward. He believed the attacks were the result of reflex irritation. He recited eighteen cases, all of which were relieved. Flechsig133 favors the gynæcological treatment of hysteria, including castration or oöphorectomy. He reports three cases with good results. His article favors the idea that any morbid condition of the genital organs present ought to be remedied before treating the hysterical symptoms. Zeuner,134 on the other hand, refers to a number of cases in which gynæcological treatment gave either entirely negative results or was productive of positive injury to hysterical patients. He quotes Perreti,135 physician to an asylum for the insane, who gives the details of a number of cases in which gynæcological examinations or treatment were directly productive of injury. He mentions a case of a female patient who had delusions and hallucinations of a sexual type in which the physician was the central figure. He reports cases in which proper constitutional treatment, without gynæcological interferences, led to a full recovery. Playfair, also quoted by Zeuner, states that he has often known the condition of hysterical patients to be aggravated by injudicious gynæcological interference. Oöphorectomy will be more fully discussed under HYSTERO-EPILEPSY.
132 Med. Press and Circ., June 2, 1880.
133 Neurol., 7 Abt., 1885, Nos. 19, 20.
134 Journ. American Med. Ass., Chicago, 1883, i. 523-525.
135 Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, No. 10.