746 Dynamic Theory. 



Bouisson had for a patient a ' < young man who had become insane in 

 consequence of a double cataract, with incoherence of ideas and com- 

 plete failure of spontaneity. " He performed the operation of couching 

 in both eyes. In a few days sight returned, and in a few weeks his 

 mental condition improved so that he could take care of himself. 

 Another case is reported by Baillarger of a "patient who, if his eyes 

 were closed by another person, even without sleeping, fell into a great 

 disorder of mind. It seemed to him that he was transported through 

 the air and that his limbs were f ailing off." Another, a woman of 2 7 

 would, if her eyes were closed, see all sorts of objects, as fields, animals 

 and houses. "According to Dumont," out of 120 persons who are 

 blind, 37 are affected by intellectual disorders " varying from hypo- 

 chondria to mania, hallucination and dementia," and not counting with 

 these any who were affected with appreciable lesions of the brain. 



The embryo of the Taenia Solium is hatched from an egg taken into 

 the stomach. ( See page 190.) From there the embryo wanders through 

 the tissues and finally becomes encysted in some enclosed cavity. "Some 

 have been found in the eyeball, in the lobes of the brain, in the heart or 

 in the muscles. We have lately read an account of the effects produced 

 by one of these wandering worms on a man who died after suffering from 

 a peculiar disturbance of the mind. Two spirits seemed to haunt and 

 speak to him, the one a German the other a Pole. Filthy images were 

 called up before his imagination. At the post mortem examination cys- 

 ticerci were found to occupy the sella turcica near the commissure of the 

 optic nerves. One of these was alive, the others were calcified. Two 

 others in a similar condition occupied a lobe of the brain. " ( P. J. Yan 

 Beneden, 218.) 



' * Kuchenmeister, who collected 88 cases of cysticercus of the brain, 

 found the cysts 49 times in the membranes, 6 of which were on the dura 

 mater, 11 on the arachnoid, 23 on the pia mater, 9 on the choroid 

 plexus. Fifty-nine on the surface of the cerebrum, 41 in the cortical 

 substance, 19 in the white substance, 18 in the ventricles and aqueduct, 

 17 in the corpora striata and anterior commissure, 15 in the optic thalami 

 and gray commissure, 4 in the corpora quadrigemina and pineal gland, 2 

 in the trigona olfactoria, corpus callosum and medulla oblongata, one 

 in the olrauy body, and 18 in the cerebellum. In the above, 18 per 

 cent, were without any symptoms, in 6 they were only trifling, in 5 epi- 

 lepsy alone was present, in 4 epilepsy with mental debility, in 15 epilepsy 

 with paralytic symptoms, in 24 insanity without epilepsy, of which 7 

 were without motor or sensory disturbances, 17 had lameness, cramps, 

 hemiplegia, paralysis and muscular twitchings, while out of .all only 24 

 had epilepsy. " l 



1 From a paper by Dr. R." Harvey Reed, of New Orleans. 



