The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-23
A CASE OF CATALEPSY.
The Extraordinary Affection of Female Pa
tient at the City Hospital.

One OF the most extraordinary cases in the
history of nervous disease is now ION exhibit
tion,' if the term is permissible at the City Hos
pltal 1t is a genuine case of cataiepsy, one of
the rarest, and at the same time the most inter
esting OF cerebro-spinal neuroses. The patient
affected with this strange nervo-psychical disor
der is woman who came to the hospital direct
ly from the depot. having been sent from farm
near Danville, Ind, where she was acting as
domestic. She was suffering from various bodily
aches and pains, and mental depression superad-
ded, but her cataleptc condition was not
known until accidentally discovered by
the house physician, DIR. Motfatt
Upon lifting her hand it remained
rigidly fixed in the air. Impressed at once that
it was genuine case, Dr. Wishard was called,
who confirmed the diagnosis. The patient had
passed the condition of constant muscular
rigidity, which usually initiates this disorder.
and was in the peculiar condition Of "waxy
rigidity," which is as described learnedly by Dr.
Wishard characteristic, dlagnostic and, in
deed pathoguomonic of catalepsy." To show
this, DR.. Wishard raised the right arm from the
shoulder joint, and fexed it at the elbow,
bending the fingers this way and
that. If of wax or clay they could not have
been more flexible or permanent IN
their position The left arm was put in other
contorted positions. Then the legs, bent at the
thighs, were set at angles Of 80 and 45 degrees
respectively, and lastly, the head was fexed on
the shoulders. and there the patient lay for FIVE
minutes, as fixed as though frozen or as if petri-
fed by the snaky head of Medusa Not only
was there complete abolition of voluntary mo-
tion but also Of consciousness and sencibility
She might have remained longer, but fearing to
use the vital energies in this unequal and alb
normal conflict with human muscle and gravity,
the Doctor struck his hands violently together,
when the woman collapsed like empty sack,
and, with slight shudder and groan, became
herself, only to relapse in few moments to her
strange condition.
Catalepsy, the Doctor explained, was not
disease per Sc, but only manifestation or symp-
tom of various affections of the nervous system.
Little is known of the nerve or brain LESSONS
which cause it, as most patients recover. though
some continue for several months dying OF in
anition unless arti1clally fed.
Catalepsy sometimes follows typhoid fever
sand meningitis, and occasionally the inhalation
OF ether and chloroform, or the administration
of narcotics. In the present case, small doses
of morphia will surely induce the catalep.ic
state, while the bromides relieve it. So rare is
this disease that Rosenthal professor Of
nervous diseases at Vienna, only reports
three certified cases in his own
large experience, and case is known to
have occurred in this vicinity outside of the
medicoreligious practice of priestess Wood
ward, who it is said induces religious trance
by her vagaries.
So insensble is the present patient when in
this state that severe pin thursts made no i'm
preston on her nerves in any part of her body.
The history of this case, social Or medical, is
little known, though the patient has been under
mental strain, and her only solace has been in
religious devotion and the hope Of future COM
fort Many physicians have been out to see the
unfortunate, and to-day it will be discussed.
at o'ciOcA, by DR.. Wlshard, before the regular
hospital Clinics for the benefit of students and
practitioners of medicine.