STRANGE MENTAL CHANGES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18693, 26 January 1923, Page 5

STRANGE MENTAL CHANGES

Strange consequences of encephalitis lehargica (sleepy sickness) are recorded by Dr. G. A. Auden, school medical officer. Birmingham, in the “Lancet.” He writes:—“ln a large number of cases which recover, the after history shows a definite change. The quiet housewife develops the temper of a shrew, or the model husband begins to neglect his home. Such effects may assume a socialogical importance, for cases will probably occur in which the question or criminal responsibility is raised, and an attack of encephalitis may bo urged in defence of some antisocial act..’’ Dr. Auden gives a number of illustrative cases. A girl who was normal till she was eight, when she had an attack of sleepy sickness, became uncontrollable at the age of ten. Her mother said : —“ Slie will go into shops and take anything. She is verv destructive, and cuts up the sheets and curtains to make dolls’ clothes; she also cuts up her own clothes. She set baby’s hair alight with a candle, and takes her father’s food from under his eyes.” We are having many cases of encephalitis lethargica,” writes a medical correspondent. “In London last week six cases were notified. About one-fourth of the people who wore attacked in Birmingham in 1919-20 have shown changes in moral character. Apparently this disease will produce a good many criminals ”