Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-27
EVENING DEMOCRAT, SATURDAY. APRIL 1889
ALL ABOUT PARESIS.
An Insidioua Disease Which De- stroys Many Brain-W orkers.
rns Theories of Some Noted Physicians Once Afflicted with the Brain-Destroy- CT, tho Patients Only Hopc is
 the Grave-Prominent Victims.

ri,e Theories of Some Noted Physicians
 Once Afflicted with the Brain-Destroy-
 CT, tho Patients Only Hopo is
 the Grave-Prominent Victims.
 Paresis is disease of comparatively mod ern growth. Americans are its victims more than any other people on earth. It loves brilliant mark, and the best and brainiest of our land become it's prey. It is incurable. When once within it's clutches the subject undergoes living death; a slow, tortuous, deceptive one, but still the dark river is inevitably reached.
 There are many causes which induce paresis-overHork, overindulgence in alco- holic beverages, tobacco or narcotics or other eXcesses.
 People of small mental caliber need not fear paresls, provided they do not cripple their brains by overindulgence in liquor.
 Statistics show that but one per cent of the cases reported are women.
 From the time when the first traces of the disease are apparent but three years are required to consign the patient to the grave. There are cases where the victim fingers on for twelve or fourteen years. This only oc- CUTS where the subject is given to alcoholic and narcotic eXcesSeS and possesses in ad- dition great physical powers. For three quarters of that period he is a pitiable sight. His frame is without the slightest spark of life, hls eyes are lusterleSS, his muscles fiabby and flesh like that of a corpse. In word, he is a helpless idiot, tortured by dark Authorizations, tormented by physical fears, and death finally comes as q glad re- lease.
 Brilliant men are the first to fall beneath its lnsidious advances. Bankers, lawyers, editors, actors, pIaywrights and even doc tors compose the greater part of the roll of its victims. In the very fact that its prog ress is insdious the danger lies. When the symptoms are discovered the patient has gone beyond hope of recovery. Once the work of mental disinteragtion begun, the only end is the grave.
 The striking pecuharity of paresls, para doXical aS the statement may seem, is it's apparent suddenness. A strong, vigorous man, ill the prime of life-the president of a railroad, If you please-a man endowed with physical and mental attributes to an extraordinary degree, Is suddenly stricken down and compelled to take long rest. He goes to Europe, visits the land ot the Gid, wanders about the catacombs and inhales the breezes of the Mediterranean at Monte | Carlo. He finally returns to work, but is | incapable of effort. He leaves his desk. | The process Of mental disinteragtiou goes on and the inevitable end is calmly waited. | This case is like thousands of others. i When the victim shows the first symp: :oms | his "breaking down. is thought to be due to | overwork Friends urge that a brief rest | will re store him to his usual condition. 1t | eoes not The mlnd grows weaker. The | body, strange to say, seems to develop. Finally the mind becomes warped, dark pictures come before it, and the body fails. 1 The patient can not sleep, has excruciatin 2 pains in the head, eats abnormally, but without preserving the physical powers, and finally the body, like the mind, wastes away to a mere skeleton. Then comes death. Sometimes the victim rallies Q bit. He seems to regain ill a measure his mental control, and is permitted to test his strength of intellect again in business professional pursuits. Then the reaction comes quick and sudden. The mind resumes it's defect i've condition; the same phantasmagorla afflict it; the same painful hallucinations terrify it. Then comes the end.
 | Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, the famous specialist and a recognized authority upon | mental diseases, gave New York Star re- porter few facts about the remarkable disease!
 "Paresis," sad Dr. Hamilton, "is ire. quently misunderstood by many people. II I Is generally supposed to be insanlty-pure and simple-with new name. It is the fashion nowadays to call all forms of men, tai disturbance paresis. It is a paralyzing of the nerve fbers. The disease has in. creased alarmingly in this country within the last eight or ten years, and from what I can learn is dependent directly upon vice and not upon the overworling of the braln | Alcoholism frequently induces it.
 "Ihaveseen innumerable cases of paresis in the asylums, and many in my private practice, and find, as rule, that the disease attacks persons who are primarily dissipat ed and who are addicted to great or irreg ular amount of mental work. Generally the first symptoms begin with feelings of de
 spondency or depression, which is followed after time by wonderfully extravagant ideas. Some subjects believe that they car make enormous wealth by carrying out s scheme or idea they cherish. Others be
 ieve they have heaven born mission to dt
 something good and great for their fellow
 man, such as the establishment of new
 faiths or doctrines. The schemes are al
 ways colossal. The victim of paresis never
 entertains any thing small. When under
 the domination of theseedelusions the sub
 jectis likely to treat with violence any ont
 who questions his powers or belief.
 "After this period has passed away
 there may be cessation of the symptom.
 of paresis, and his friends begin to hope
 that the patient may recover. This period may last five or six months, but with the l certainty of fate the apparent soundness O. mind vanishes, and the wild mental pict
 ures return with greater force than before The disease then makes its way, with prob
 ably recurring periods of sanity, but they are always shorter, and the inevitable enc
 comes.
 "With the progress of the disease the frame wastes away, the strength leave.
 the patient, the muscles become 1abby ant
 general paralysis sets in. At the last stag,
 of his illness the patient becomes devoid O. consciousness, incapable of motion, his eye. ! are lusterless, saliva oozes from his moutl and he fades away from earth.
 "Men are almost always the victims O paresis, and they generally vary in az, from forty to forty-tive years. Only on, ) per cent. or thereabout of known cases O s paresis are women. Alcohol and overworl
 in an irregular way and in irregular hours are the causes of paresls.
 Excessive mental work, with recours, 7 to narcotics, alcohol or other stimulants f frequently causes paresis. This is ire
 quently exemplitied in the case of bankers lawyers, journalists and others who insis i, on working sixteen hours day, and wh . employ stimnlants to keepup their strengtl