The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-29
ST. VITUS' DANCE.
A NOVEL CURE FOR THIS FORM
OF PARALYSIS.
A Patient Made to Gaze Fi1edly
ct Moving Mirrors He is
Hypnotized and Com
pletely Cured.

An interesting communication has been
made by a. physician of the Charlie Hos
pital, Doctor Luys, to the Medical So
ciety of the Paris Hospitals, on the par
ticular form of paralysis known as St.
Vitus's Dance. Doctor Luys said:
81 present to the Society a patient,
forty-four years of age, who for four
years was subject to paralysie agitante,
until it occurred to me to try on him
rays of rotating mirrors, or the springes
used for luring larks. The experiment
was not only absolutely harmless, but it
was authorized by the fact that all treat
ment employed until then by number
of my colleagues in the hospitals had
failed.
"When I first saw the patient, jan
uary S, 1889, his morbid condition had
all the most typical characteristics Of pa
ralysie agitante (st. Vitus's Dance). Be-
sides the characteristic trembling of the
hands, there was general quivering of
the trunk, rigidity of the muscles of the
neck, which, by sort of torticolis, kept
the head motionless on the spinal COL
umn. The features were immobile and
plsstered to the bony subjacent skeleton
without any apparent folds. The patient
was absolutely unable to carry cup to
his lips or to eat his soup; he could not
even button his clothes without assist
ance, nor could he write; for four years
it had been impossible for him to write
his name. His speech was confused and
jerky; he was also troubled with contin-
ual headache.
"Hypnotic treatment with rotating
mirrors was at once commenced. During
eight consecutive days the patient was
made to gaze fxedly at the moving mir
rors from about twenty to thirty minutes
at time. During this time his case pre-
sented no apparent notifications, but
after the eighth trial of the treatment an
Improvement showed itself in his condi-
ton, in diminution of the trembling of
the hands and less acute cephalagie.
After the fourteenth day the improve
ment had made considerable progress;
the rigidity of the neck had disappeared,
the features had recovered their natural
aspect and color, his speech had become
normal, and the trembling of the hands
had diminished to such point that the
patient could carry tumbler half filed
with water to his mouth, while previous
" he had been obliged, in order to drink
unaided, to place the glass on a chair
and get down on his knees so as to take
it between his lips.
"At the end of three weeks treatment
the patient had sufficiently improved to
ask permission to leave the hospital and
to resume his work. I induced him to
prolong his stay in order to complete the
treatment, and now, at tie end of about
three months, I consider that he is cured.
sit is an interesting fact that morbid
condition of such long standing and one
which is considered as incurable, should
have been so rapidly cured by the mere
physical action of mirrors in rotation
placed before the eyes of the patient. No
verbal hypnotic suggestion was made to
the patient during the first days OF the
treatment; it was only toward its close,
when the progress toward cure was well
marked, that some suggestions to cease
trembling were made to him. As matter
of fact, the really eficacious action OF
this treatment belongs entirely to the
strange influence first upon the eyes, and
then on the nervous centres, of the vibra'
tions of rays of light acting in success
Give ond ranid Wayn