The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-24
IT IS WRITER'S CRAMP.
A Painful Ailmelt Which is Growing
More Prevalent.
Your Fingers Culver, There is Pain
in the Shoulder and the Pen Drops
From Your Hand.

ACAAA NAAO wow ADtA lIlDuAApf
There is one deficiency which is COM
mon to great many persons and which
causes untold sufferings that might be
arrested if not entirely prevented in the
first instance by little judicious study
OF the ordinary precautions to be observed
in the everyday life of the average man.
The deficiency is failure to inquire into
and find out the cause when anything alb
normal appears to interrupt the calm flow
of ordinary health, or to dull those facul-
ties whose unimpaired condition is the
surest guarantee of long life and pleas
ant one.
There is what is known as writer's
cramp, and this seems to be entirely ig-
nored by the medical fraternity. In fact
they can't cure it. Their treatment of
this disease which they scarcely recognize
as disease, is experimental rather taan
exact. Writer'S cramp is called pen
paralysis sometimes, and is one of the
ugllest and most provoking ills by which
busy man can be beset. Having con-
WINGED the average doctor after some
argument that you are really unable to
handle pen or pencil properly
you will find 1t impossible to convince a
layman, for the general verdict
~
person afflicted with writers cramp shows
no appearance of ill-health, and his
hand IS good for almost anything except
the one thing of writing 1t may have
gone on a long time before you begin to
realize what Is the matter, and this you
can only find out from. some one who has
made especial study of nervous diseases :;
for pen paralysis belongs in this category.
When the doctor orders the patient to APP
ply electricity, and gives instructions in
the way that he would give them if he
were prescribing for a sick headache you
may know at once that he understands as
much about the subject as COW does
about double-breasted frock coat.
AMEDICAL PAPER ON THE SUBJECT.
In an article which appeared some
years ago in 1.-The Medical Record" an
interesting description of the effects of
this serious and growing malady was
given. According to this, " the inability
of the hand to write and, in more ex-
tended sense, to perform the finer me-
chanical movements required in knitting,
piano and violin-playing, sewing, paint
ing, telegraphlng, etc, has been looked
upon by physicians partly as a peripheral,
partly as a central affection, and has
hitherto been regarded an unsolved pro-
blem. 1t sets in by almost imperceptlbly
manifesting itself first in sight singing
anu OGCdSlOldl lduCIudblllg pam IN IlG
hand; by degrees the pain becomes no
ticeable in the wrist, in the arm. in the
region of the shoulder, and not rarely it
extends toward.the back. At this timetthe
patient becomes conscious of an increas-
ing sense of weakness in the hand,
which is felt especially by the
fingers when used in writing; they begin
to contract, the legibility of the writing
diminishes, and at length the patient
aft rap 70 all
most can barely scribble on the table
with the greatest difficulty and fatigue.
Corresponding to the involuntary opposi-
tion movements, there appear on the
paper unintentional hooks, at times quite
amusing blotches of ink, and all sorts of
strokes dlsfguriug the handwriting. AT
last the fingers not only refuse to write,
| but are BILE to perform all the finger
| motions, such as winding a watch, knit
ting, sewing, etc. Any other work can
be done without difficulty, but as soon as
| the pen or the needle is again grasped in
| the fingers the contractions recurn
The writer was present some months
| ago in public place, and was engaged in
reporting speeches. One of the men who
happened to be present and saw. as he at
| tempted to write the awkward manner
in which his hand was jumping on the
paper, while he strove in vain to make
! freely the ordinary motions, stepped close
| to him and said:
"What is the matter with. your hand ~
Il really do not know, " was the reply.
81 am very nervous, and l suppose that's
what causes it. But dare say it will be
all right in few days"
81 am sorry to alarm you" said he, ''but
would advise YOU not to be too certain
about that"
"Why2p
because you have writer's cramp, and
you have it bad"
| GETTING ADVICE FROM DOCTORS.
Some time subsequent to this the writer
obtained the advice of some doctors OF
1 note as to the best treatment to undergo.
| Some of them had seen but one example
of it in years of experience; others had
heard of it, but had never seen a case
while still Others had never heard of it at
all. But each one was profuse in advice
One said sulphate of strychnine. Another
| suggested electricity. This was tried.
Another suggested bathing with hot
water and salt, This was tried. Still
another thought that period of rest and
| Austen ton from work would restore the
weakened member. This, too, was tried.
All these suggestions were of no avail.
Then appeared a doctor newly arrived
from Vienna protesting a knowledge OF
1.-THE latest" on everything appertaining
y
about the case he said "Your only
chance of getting rid of that is to learn to
write with the left hand"
1T really wasn't worth while to go to
Vienna to make such profound discovery
as that, doctor, was it," came the reply
from the man who was beginning to feel
desperate as well as disguised. 1t was
plain to be seen that not one of them seemed
to understand anything at all about the
matter. Why should this be so9 Is the
subject not worthy of study, or is it be-
lieved impossible to effect a permanent
cure} 1t can scarcely be any of these
things. A man whose living depends upon
writing and who has writer's cramp is as
much at the mercy Of his creditors as il
he were stricken with malignant fever
He can't do any work. Whenever he
tries to write pain IS caused to the whole
physical system in the fruitless effort tC
concentrate the energies on sometime
while the nerve cell or cells in the brain
refuse stubbornly to supply the motive
| power. There in fact, is where the