Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/148

140 HYSTERIA sensation of pressure and suffocation, flatulence and tympanitic distention, Lurried respiration, palpitations, occasional cramps, and great de- pression or exaltation of spirits. An attack of hysteria may last for several hours, the violent symptoms recurring every few minutes, with intervals of partial rest ; or it may consist of but a single paroxysm of 20 minutes or half an hour in duration. After the paroxysm has ceased, tolerable health may be enjoyed for some time, though the nervous excitability per- sists. In cases of long duration, the intellect and memory become enfeebled, the strength fails, and hypochondriasis and various chronic irritations of the vital organs supervene. Hys- teria is very irregular in its march ; it is the most protean of diseases, simulating almost every morbid condition ; its duration is varia- ble, sometimes terminating in health after a few attacks without medical treatment, and at others lasting a lifetime in spite of the best directed efforts to arrest it ; its most dangerous consequences are convulsions, spasmodic con- tractions, partial paralysis, epilepsy, and ten- dency to insanity. The predisposing causes of hysteria are the female sex and a hereditary or acquired nervous irritability ; the exciting causes are vivid moral emotions, anything which excites the imagination, especially dis- appointed love, jealousy, and various excesses of body or mind ; it is often brought on by the mere force of imitation ; some irregular action of the sexual functions is found in nearly if not quite all cases between the ages of 15 and 50. There has been great diversity of opinion on the nature and seat of the disease ; its cause has been located in the uterus, in the brain, in the spinal cord, and in the stomach and other abdominal organs. Whatever be its ori- gin, a disordered state of the emotional nature is an essential character of hysteria, and the con- trol of the feelings rather than of muscular action is lessened or lost ; it is partly a disease of the mind, from improper education or self- abandonment to the power of the emotions. The habitual indulgence of feelings of a pain- ful character or of sexual tendency affects the nutrition of the nervous and genital systems, giving rise to the peculiar phenomena of this affection. Though hysteria may simulate the phenomena of epilepsy, tetanus, chorea, hydro- phobia, and other nervous diseases presented to its imitative disposition, it is dependent on a state of much less abnormal character ; there is generally no structural lesion, nor any seri- ous disturbance of the nutritive functions, as is evident from the long duration of the disease, and the suddenness with which different forms pass into each other or disappear entirely ; the strangeness of these combinations and sudden changes is sufficient to distinguish hysteria from the more grave diseases which it imitates. According to Carpenter, this excitability of the nervous system, which is only an exaggeration of that characteristic of the female sex, is caused by some defect of nutrition, the particular phe- nomena arising either from some morbid con- dition of the blood acting upon the nervous centre most susceptible to its influence, or from irritation of the peripheral nerves ; he believes a gouty diathesis is one of the most frequent sources of this imperfect nutrition. The prin- ciples of treatment are threefold : 1, to improve the nutrition of the nervous system by bring- ing the blood up to its healthy standard by strengthening diet, hygienic means, and the judicious employment of tonics ; 2, to remove all irregularities in the menstrual or other func- tions, when they are evident exciting causes; 3, to act upon the mind, by leading the patient to repress the first emotional excitement by the force of the will, and to direct the atten- tion to a different class of objects, substituting a pleasant for a disagreeable train of thought. The attack itself requires that the patient should be kept from injuring herself, and the removal of all constricting garments, fresh air, sprin- kling with cold water, inspiration of ammonia or other strong or disagreeable odors, irritating the nostrils with a feather, and other similar domestic remedies. To prevent a return, tran- quillity of mind and habits of self-control are the best remedies ; any disappointment, whe- ther in love, business, or other affairs of life, should if possible be removed by the realiza- tion of the hopes ; if marriage be unadvisable, the tendency to hysteric attacks will often be removed by the change of air, scene, and habits resulting from a distant journey ; and a similar course is useful to distract the atten- tion from other consuming cares and passions. Ih I'HH. a town and parliamentary borough of Kent, England, on the British channel, 11 m. W. S. W. of Dover; pop. of the municipal borough in 1871, 3,363. It is one of the cinque ports, and was formerly a place of considerable importance ; but its harbor has been destroyed by accumulations of matter thrown up by the waves, and it is now a fashionable resort for sea bathing. It has a military school and a theatre. The parliamentary borough includes Folkestone and several smaller places. I I THE 9th letter of the Latin and of most ? other European alphabets, derived from the 10th Phoenician, Hebrew, &c., where it is named yod (Heb. yad, hand), and considered as a consonant. A dot under other consonants denotes its vocality in the Hebrew, and other marks in the other Semitic languages. It is the llth letter in Armenian, the 28th and last