PSEUDO-HYSTERIA 63 



PSEUDO-HYSTERIA IN THE UN-SEXED MALE 



In geldings we may occasionally meet with a set of 

 symptoms, apparently nervous symptoms, peculiar to 

 themselves. The subjects thereof are without exception 

 high-strung, spirited animals. In every instance that 

 has come to my attention they have a nerv-oug^jtempera- 

 ment, and are possessed of one or more bad habits, such as 

 biting, striking or cribbing. Lacking these, they are what 

 is usually termed ' ' cranky. ' ' Only geldings possessed of 

 ' ' defective ' ' temperaments such as these develop attacks 

 of pseudo-hysteria. 



Symptoms. The attack comes on suddenly, and 

 usually while the animal is at rest in the stable. The 

 manifestations range in severity from a mild effort at 

 obtaining freedom to methodical outbursts of studied 

 viciousness. In rare cases the manifestations take the 

 form of ridiculous antics, such as shying in the stall at 

 imaginary objects, striking at imaginary objects, and so 

 on. In one case under my care the gelding would stand 

 for hours swinging and jerking his head in exact imita- 

 tion of a horse resisting bot flies. Another case persisted 

 in standing on the edge of his manger with his forefeet. 

 When taken out of his stall he acted normally. As soon 

 as returned he again assumed the position on the edge of 

 the manger. He did this for three days, after which he 

 again became normal. During the time that the attack 

 was present he showed nothing that could be called abnor- 

 mal, aside from his mania for standing as described. 

 Other cases refuse to remain tied, or even object to con- 

 finement in a box-stall. A gelding that I saw recently 

 gave every indication of being violently insane when 

 forced to remain in the box-staU he had occupied will- 

 ingly for many months. This mania lasted nearly three 

 days, and abated temporarily as soon as he was turned 



