464 CATALEPSY. 



or its alkaloid atropin, given internally over a period of 

 time. This has been attended with great success in 

 man. 



Support by good food and the moderate use of stimu- 

 lants, are of the greatest service ; tonic remedies are used in 

 eradicating the disease, especially the oxide of zinc, oxide 

 of silver, nitrate of silver, sulphate of iron, &c. 



CATALEPSY. 



"A fit of catalepsy implies a sudden suspension of 

 thought, of sensibility, and of voluntary motion." Dr 

 Watson, who thus defines catalepsy, adds that the mental 

 faculties are in abeyance and the sensibility abolished, as 

 also the functions of voluntary motion ; but the limbs are 

 not tied down by spasm ; nor agitated by successive con- 

 traction and relaxation of their muscles ; nor yet left, like 

 portions of dead matter, passively obedient to the laws of 

 gravity : they assume any posture in which they may 

 be placed, and that posture, however absurd, however (to 

 all appearance) inconvenient and fatiguing, they retain, 

 until some new force from without is applied to them, or 

 until the paroxysm is at an end. Catalepsy is by no 

 means a malady restricted to man. As far back as 1686, 

 Lochner described a case in a dog.* Leisering reported a 

 ca.se a few years back which he saw in a wolf in the Berlin 

 Zoological Gardens. The limbs were held in any position 

 in which they were placed. Hering has reported a singu- 

 lar case in a horse, which suddenly stopped if at work, and 

 remained fixed with his fore legs propped out, and staring. 

 The seizures lasted for five or ten minutes. Cataleptic 

 symptoms are seen in a disease peculiar to horses, termed 



* See Bering's Pathologie and Therapie, or Misc. Acad. Nat. Cur. 



