CATALEPSY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 136, 1 August 1911, Page 7

CATALEPSY.

A SUPPOSED CASE IN CHRISTCHURCH. REMARKABLE PLIGHT OF A YOUNG MAN. A strange malady seized a young man in Christmchurch last week, and lie was removed to the Christchurch Hospital, where his complaint was diagnosed as catalepsy. He .is a young man who has been in business as a cycle dealer in Temuka. He came to .Christchurch on Thursday, and at about 9.60 on Monday morning called at the shop of an acquaintance. Tie conversed with the assistant for some time, and then leaned against the wail of the shop, where he remained rigid for an hear and a naif, replying to nothing that was asked to him, and only occasionally ’'oiling his eyes. About an hour lat-r he was in the same statue-like attitude and in a state of complete insensibility’. A doctor was summoned and applied certain tests, to ascertain the man’s condition He lifted one arm, and it remained horizontal. Ho lifted the other arm, and it remained in the same position. Then he lifted the arms out sideways, and they remained rigid. This led him to believe that the case was one of catalepsy, and ho stated that if the subject had boon allowed to stand, the muscles would have relaxed eventually and the man would have fallen. A taxicab was summoned, hut some difficulty was oxpoiioncod in getting the patient into it, as lie was to all intents and purposes the same as a dead body. Hnth doors had to he opened to allow the man’s logs to go through the cab so that he could he heat into a sitting posture. In that position ho remained until the hospital was readied, hut on arrival there he showed some flickcrings of consciousness, and hopes wore entertained that ho would come round.

The young man is of a nervous disposition, and it is supposed that his attack has been brought on by worry over an account of £3l that is owing him. The case is remarkable in that

it is probably the the only one recorded in Now Zealand. The meaning of the word catalepsy is a seizure. The word is applied to a nervous affection characterised by the. sudden suspension of sensation and volition, accompanied with a peculiar rigidity of the whole or of certain muscles of the body’. The subjects of, catalepsy arc in most cases females of highly nervous temperament. In some instances the appearances are mistaken for death. Although it is said to occur in persons in perfect health, careful inquiry;, will usually reveal some departure; from the normal state. Catalepsy is sometimes associated with, epilepsy, and with grave forms of , mental disease. An authority’ states that the successful treatment of such a disease must depend on the due recognition of both its corporeal and mental relations. While the state of health will demand the attention of the physician, his skill and judgment will he no less urgently called for in dealing with the mental and moral chara-ctciiistic;- manifested in each particular case. Soon after the hospital was reached the man recovered the use of his limbs, and the hospital authorities considered his case one for mental treatment.