174 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



The subjects of catalepsy are usually young women, but it is occasionally met 

 with in men. In one case the patient was a man sixty years of age. He was 

 engaged in plastering, when suddenly he became insensible, and his limbs and 

 body were rigidly fixed in the position in. which he was attacked. The fit lasted 

 twenty-two hours, and then recovery gradually took place. It is supposed to 

 have been induced by much mental suffering, owing to the sudden death of 

 his wife. 



Cataleptic fits vary very much, not only in their frequency, but in their duration. 

 Sometimes they are very short indeed, lasting only a few minutes. In one case, 

 that of a young lady, they would sometimes come on when she was reading aloud. 

 She would stop suddenly in the middle of a sentence, and a peculiar stiffness of the 

 whole body would seize her, fixing the limbs immovably for several minutes. Then 

 it would pass off, and the reading would be continued at the very word at which it 

 had been interrupted, the patient being quite unconscious that anything had happened. 

 But sometimes fits such as these may last for days and days together, and it seems 

 not improbable that people may have been buried in this state in mistake for 

 death. 



Catalepsy is in many cases associated with other diseases, and it sometimes ends 

 in epilepsy. Curiously enough, some cataleptics are able voluntarily to induce the 

 fits at almost any time. It has been supposed that absence of mind is in reality a 

 slight form of catalepsy. When a man is in a " brown study," or reverie, the eyes 

 are fixed by a muscular action similar to that which occurs in the cataleptic, and 

 not the eye only, for a limb or the whole body will remain in the same position for 

 many minutes, the senses themselves being in deep abstraction from surrounding 

 objects. 



Catalepsy is by no means a dangerous disease, for recovery almost uniformly 

 takes place. The best remedy is bromide of potassium. It should be given in two or 

 three table-spoonful doses of the mixture (Pr. 31) three times a day. The oxide of 

 zinc pills (Pr. 66) will in some cases be found useful. The administration of strychnia 

 is often attended with benefit. Several cases have been treated successfully with 

 small doses of tincture of Cannabis Indica, the Indian hemp. Only one of these 

 drugs should be given at a time. It is very essential that the mind should be 

 brought under proper discipline, and kept as far as possible from all causes calculated 

 to promote emotional excitement. 



CHILBLAINS AND CHAPPED HANDS. 



A chilblain is a low form of inflammation of the skin, usually of the hands or 

 feet, attended with itching, tingling, burning, and swelling of the part. It is chiefly 

 a complaint of early life. Boys and girls at school are the chief sufferers. Men 

 seldom suffer from them, but some women are subject to them all their lives. A 

 tendency to chilblains often runs in families. They occur most frequently in people 

 who have a weak circulation, as evinced by cold feet and hands, and occasional 

 blueness of the lips and tips of the fingers during the winter months. Their appear- 

 ance is generally ascribed to too suddenly warming the hands and feet after they 



