Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-25
he took a second brandy and soda, an
unusual INDULGENCE which BETRAYED an

Il
4 to. the Agricultural Hall. and proceeding
on foot q short distance, we turned up
la kind of court. over 4 the entrance of
j which a lamp was burning, revealing the
words Lecture Hail.
1 Jevons produced two tickets. whereupon
i we were admitted into q long; low room,
! filed by mixed audience, consisting Of
both men and women. pom the platform
lat the farther end was a man Of middle
i age. which short fair beard, gray eyes,
land an alert, resolute manner-a foreign
/ ersby his dress-and beside him an Eng
4 slishman of spruce professional appear
/. nce-muchs older, slightly bent with gray
/ scountenance and white hair &
We arrived just at the moment of the
/ opening Of the proceeding The English
/ man, whom Il set down to be medical
/ man. the moment he opened his lips. rose,
/ and. In introducing the !, lecturer beside
/ him, said ::
IT have the honor, ladies and gentle
4 men, to introduce to you DR.. Paul De-
/ boutin, who, as most of you know, is
/ one of the most celebrated medical men
! IN Paris, lecturer at the Salpetrtere, and
j author Of many works upon nervous dis
i sOrders. The study of the latter is not,
unfortunately, sufficiently taken up in
i this country, and tits in order to- demon
4 strate the necessity of such study that
my friends and myself have invited DR..
lDeboutin to give this lecture before an
audience of both medical men and the
lslaity. The doctor asks me to pologize
! to you for his inability to express himself
well in English, but personallysI have no
fear that you will misunderstood him. Y
/ Then he turned, introduced the lecturer,
and reseated himself. 81
! I was unprepared for such a treat De-
iSboutin, as every medical man is aware,
! is the first authority on nervous disorders,
!, H. HI
worldwide reputation. I had read all his
books, and being especially struck with
/ IN evroses ct Idees Fixes most con-
vincing work, had longed to be present
at one of his demonstrations Therefore,
| forgehtful ;that8I was there for some un-
| forgetfu1 that was there for some un-
! Rapidly and clearly he spoke in very
| good English, with a decision that Show
ed him to- be perfect master at once.
Of his subject and of the phrases with
which he intended to clothe his thoughts.
He briefly outlined the progress of his
experiments at the Salpetriere. and at
the hospitals of Lyons and Marseilles;
then, without long. preliminary, proceeded
to demonstrate most interesting case.
"A girl Of about Is. with countenance
only relieved from uglness by a fine pair.
Of bright, dark eyes, was led by an as
sistant and seated in chair. She was
of the usual type seen in the streets of
Islington, poorly dressed with some at
tempt at faded fnery-a working girl in
some city factory, probably. She cast an
uneasy glance upon the audience, and
then turned toward the doctor, who
drew his chair towards the patient, so
that her knees nearly touched his.
It was a case Of nervous .Hemian-
opsie," or one-eyed vision, he explained.
Now, the existence of this has always
been denied, therefore the experiment
was of the most intense interest TO every
medical man there present.
First, the doctor. after ordering the pa
tient to look at him straight In the face.
held a pencil on the left side of her head.
and found that in common with most of
us she was conscious of Its = presence
without moving her eyes, even when it
was almost at the level Of her ear. Then
he tried the same experiment on the right.
side of the face, when it was at once
plain that the power Of; the lateral vision
had broken down-for she answered,
the pencil to and fro. with the
inquiry whether she could see it. New
ertheless, he demonstrated that the power,
of seeing straight was quite unimpaired.
and presently he gave to his assistant
a kind of glass hemisphere. which he
placed over. the girls head and by which
he measured the exact point on Its scale
This being found and noted. DR.. Debou-
tin placed his hand upon the patients
eyes, and with brief You may sleep
now. my GIRL" in broken English, she
was asleep in few seconds.
Then came the lecture. He verbally.
dissected her, giving full and lucid
explanation Of the nervous system,
from the spinal marrow and It's ter
IMITATION in the coccyx. up to the cor
tex Of the brain. in which he was Of
opinion that the was In that case a
lesion-probably cura ble-amply ac-
counting for the phenomenon present.
So clear. indeed, were his remarks that
even layman could follow them.
AT last the doctor awoke the patient.
and was about to proceed with another
experiment when his quick eye noticed
hardly perceptible f1utter of the eyelids.
...Ah, you are t4red.' he said. 1T is
enough And he conducted her to the
little side door that gave exit from the
pIa form. 80 s5ss
The next case was one Of the kind
which is always The despair Of us doc
tors-hysteria. "A girl, accompanied by
her mother, a neatly dressed. respectable
looking lady, was led forward, but her
hands were bling and her face work
Ing SO nervously that the doctor had
to reassure her. With a true Cockney
accent she said that she lived in Mile
End and worked at a pickle factory.
Her symptoms were constant headache
violent falls, and complete absence of
sensation in her left hand, which greatly
interfered with her work Some Of the
questions were inconvenient-until in
answer to4one regarding cher father she
gave cry that Poor father died last
year, and broke into an agony of weep
ing. In a moment the doctor lookup an
:anthropometric instrument from the ta-
t Bile, and made a movement as though to-
touch { her presumably insensible hand.
s.'Ah. you'll hurt mel she said, Pre-
Ssently. while her attention was attracted
In. another direction. he touched the hand
with the instrument, when she drew it
back with "a yell sof pain. showing that
s. the belief that her hand was 5insensibIe
was entirely due to hysteria. He analyz-
ed her case just as he had done In the
go