The majority of the cases of copodyscinesia that are in the habit of using either of these articles acknowledge that their use increases their disability; in very exceptional cases the moderate use of tobacco appears to soothe and quiet, and thus relieve some of the symptoms.
Age.—Copodyscinesia is a disease of early adult life; it is rare in old age. In 39 out of 43 cases of telegraphers' cramp coming under my notice the age of the patient at the outset of the disorder could be accurately determined. The average was 23.94 years. The average age of all cases of the various forms of copodyscinesia seen by me up to the present time (1886) is 25.96 years.
Sex.—The influence of sex as a predisposing cause of these affections has not been studied with sufficient care, although a few authors allude to it.
Onimus18 states that women are more frequently affected than men with telegraphers' cramp. Erb19 states that writers' spasm is met with more frequently in men, much more rarely in women, and that pianoforte-players' spasm occurs more frequently in women, and particularly in neuropathic persons who belong to nervous families. Hasse20 and Romberg21 consider that writers' cramp especially occurs in men, women being affected very rarely. Of the 75 cases of impaired writing-power reported by Poore,22 only 17 were women, while of the 31 cases of undoubted writers' cramp included in the 75, all were men.
18 Loc. cit.
19 “Writers' Cramp and Allied Affections,” Ziemssen's Cycl., Amer. ed., vol. xi.
20 Loc. cit.
21 Nervous Diseases, vol. i. p. 320.
22 Loc. cit.
It may be seen that the male sex has been employed far more frequently than the female in most of the occupations previously mentioned, so that a larger percentage of men would naturally be affected; but now that women are being employed more generally a larger number of the female sex may be expected to suffer in this way.