Show THE DEADLY PARESIS It Claims Victims by the Thousands Thou-sands Yearly HISTORY OF THE DISEASE It is tho Natural Result of an Artificial Life nUll Ncclect of Oneself Ones-elf Do you remember the blanched faces the furtive glances the trembling limbs and the strange mysterious horror which Thucydides describes in the Athenians Athen-ians when that highly civilized race first became aware that an incomprehensible and incurable malady had suddenly broken out among them 1I 0 d IbT Ar ti t qs p q a q s t r 1 tr 111 rna b nn ALIl MLAJJE HAMILTON The speaker was Dr Allan McLane Hamilton Ham-ilton perhaps the most famous American expert In diseases of the brain and nerves the government expert in the historic Gui teau case and the head of New Yorks professional pro-fessional specialists in neurology He had answered a question by asking one It was entirely natural that in my search for the secret of paresis the strange new and deadly curse of contemporary civilization I should go to the expert by whom such noteworthy pare tics as Robert Garrett once president of the Baltimore Ohio railroad company John McCullough Bart lay Campbell Tony Hart and now poor Scanlan have been treated Professional etiquette that barrier which tradition maintains between common sense and the medical practitioner forbade Dr Hamilton of course to speak of tbeso and others of his patients of whom the reading public might learn with profit But for the sake of the good it might do and the mysterious s awe it might dispol from the minds of those to whom the fear of paresis blots the fairest fair-est prospects in the world Dr Hamilton did consent to make this statement This plague of our newer civilization is not infectious like that wonderful malady which Thucydiiles describes It doesn strike our foremost men down over night tt or clutch its victims in the market pace And as mysterious as it appears to tho laity Its nature and symptoms are now thoroughly thor-oughly well understood by tho expert Bu there is unquestionably a fascination about it from the psychological point of view on account of its remarkable increase of recent re-cent years as well as by reason of tbe deadly persistence with which it drags its victim no matter how high or how humble his station In life how wild or how quiet his previous habits down into the grave General paralysis or general paresis familiarly spoken of simply as paresis has been known to medical science about fifty years but the fatal significance of the term and the individuality of the awful thing It stands for seem only to have begun to II dawn on the public vision very recently You are probably right in surmising that ten or fifteen years since the word paresis was new to newspaper readers and from the first its victims seem to have had their I I melancholy fate aggravated if possible by the vague suspicion if not the open accusation I accusa-tion that in order to have been overtaken by this curse of our nervewearing tissue I wasting civilization they must first have I been guilty of some fearful excess some indescribable indulgence as a punishment for which in ancient times fire was sent I even from heaven A great deal of melodramatic nonsense of that kind has been I retailed about town by innuendo and in stage whispers audible almost from one barroom to another And it is all wrong to have paresis a man neednt necessarily have been out breakingly wicked It is no reflectioj on a mans family for him to fall a victi Its chief cause primarily is dissipa u of some sort It may be intellectual may be physical but not necessarily dism aceful per so Yet a very largo proportion of cases of paresis are due to a malady unmentionable un-mentionable except in professional treatises trea-tises How does drinking pure and simple result re-sult in paresis Simple enough Excessive use of alcoholic stimulants produces repealed re-pealed congestion of the brain and so weakens and diseases tbo blood vessels that I they naturally develop paresis It is the curse of our modern civilization tho most fatal and mysterious of any now known to I medical science Here was richness to begin with Repeated Re-peated Kalzeiijammcr might actually end in paresis Dr Charles L Dana one of the psychological psycho-logical experts called to see Banker E M Field when his friends first began to makeup make-up their minds that Banker Field had lost his mind when he had lost their moneys is money-s tall dark man of sedate manner and a J road calm brow behind which mental processes of moment would seem likely to proceed to unbiased and unerring conclu ions Most mental experts indeed seem to be tall dark men of calm acuteness of demeanor Dr Hamilton combines the intuitive tuitive precision of a pastmaster with the courtly manners of a Cavalier No doubt the brain specialist of the next generation will be expected to hypnotize his patients to begin with in order to demonstrate mental men-tal strength enough to warrant their submission sub-mission to his counsel The personality of ho physician becomes indeed of more importance im-portance with every new advance of medical medi-cal science Dr Dana agreed to speakoof this subject now so powerfully focused in the public yo by the Scanlan Da Maupassant and other cases Great confusion exists in the public mind said Mr Dana about the meaning of paralysis or paresis There may be a a partial paralysis of the muscles of any part of the body or the muscles of all parts of > the body So there may be a total paralysis pa-ralysis of the muscles of all parts of the I body This last is often called paresis Now paresis the popular name of which used to be softening of the brain is the term applied to a stage of the malady which results in this general paralysis Indeed these synonyms are worth remembering remem-bering General paralysis of the insane Progressive paralysis of the insane General paresis and Paralytic dementia The peculiarity of paresis is that it is complicated by insanity and while I have spoken of softening of the brain as being the term once popularly applied to it the actual fact is that a paretics brain becomes be-comes if anything hardened as the sur face of the brain tissues becomes inflamed and congested I do not hold that paresis is an incurable incura-ble disease While the fact that a patient recovers may be thought by some to invalidate inval-idate the diagnosis of paresis it does not follow to my mind for believe cures have been effected Paresis is comparatively a new medical t term and in popular parlance the word has not been in use much if any more than ten years I believe It is a disease of the brain tissues you may say of the mind tissues those outer portions of the brain in which the most highly developed cerebral processes go on The disease has fortunately marked physical physi-cal symptoms Fortunately also it is not hereditary That is i one of its peculiarities peculiari-ties Although there may be a popular impression im-pression to that effect I do not think actors have fallen victims to paresisthe accent strictly speaking is on the first syllable in greater numbers than members of other professions This is a noteworthy opinion in view of the roll of such names as Bartley Campbell John McCullough Tony Hart Hawley Chapman Charles E Blanchette and W J Scanlan It may be that such an impression was not unnaturally derived from the publicity that seems to attach to the goings and doings do-ings of people on the stage At all events while paresis is not known to exist among savage races it does develops itself even among negroes Cases of this kind of paresis pare-sis are observed rarely but they do exist in negroes who have suddenly changed their residence from the calm of the country coun-try to the bustle and excitement and novel dissipations of life in a largo city It is indeed a malady springing from an overworked nervous system a deadly incident inci-dent to the exitements of our modern civilization civi-lization SOber and godly and virtuous persons who have a weak nervous system may in this way fall victims to paresis by a simple innocent indulgence in pleasures which do not operate to the prejudice of persons of ordinarily strong nerves But I should say that the chief causes of paresis are the excessive indulgence of the passions excessive use of alcohol business busi-ness excesses combined with worry and I those diseases which imply precedent immorality i im-morality I Dr George Do Forest Smith has been called in as an alienist to see John McCul lough Tony Hart Scanlan and others of Now Yorks mournfully prominent muster roll of paretics It is a mistake said Dr Smith to i infer in-fer as so many seem thoughtlessly to have done that the blight of paresis implies an antecedent moral blight necessarily The very immoralities and indecencies which have given rise to this impression have in a majority of cases been the symptoms and I not the causes of the disease and this fact is thoroughly well recognized in the books and by the expert practitioner It is a fearful incident to the contemplation contem-plation of horrible malady but one never theless to be considered that men have incipient i paresis long before their friends suspect it and that the gradual degrada tion of the mans moral nature and the growing depravity of his tastes which long afterward when the disease has passed into another stare are mysteriously mysteri-ously alluded to as the causes of poor So and i Sos fall were in reality only the symptoms that the frightful plague was already at work in his brain The real causes Difficult to particular ize but easily recognizable and well understood under-stood by the practitioner Over taxation of the nervous system is the chief either by excessive mental work or excessive dissipation dis-sipation Hard drinking by weakening > tho bloodvessels of the brain may lead to paresis So may and indeed often does the disease ol the blood which has worked such havoo among mankind since media val times Symptoms There are somo curious facts to be observed in connection with incipient in-cipient paresis You have a friend or an acquaintance in whom you have noticed a morbid change of habit and taste in business I busi-ness pursuits as well as in personal idiosyncrasies idio-syncrasies Do not sit in judgment on him just for that But has he developed immoral im-moral tastes Kleptomania perhaps or indecencies which a year or so ago woo ld have been unspeakably shocking to him That is a bad sign Do you observe a fixity of the eyeball or a nervous twitching ot the corners of the mouth a sudden spasmodic compression of the lips or distortion of the face muscles under the eyes All these to the trained eye of the practitioner prac-titioner would be momentous Is there a hesitancy of speech a difficulty of enounc ing labial sounds all those wnich bring the tongue in contact with tho teeth that is almost conclusive with the others as a symptom of incipient paresis I A paretic patient of mine said he owned all Now York down to the city hall These delusions < of crandeur overweening estimates esti-mates of ones own importance are almost inevitable indications of the progress of the disease da i 1 I DR WJf A HAMMOXD Dr William A Hammond retired surgeon sur-geon general of the United States army and president of the American Neurological Neurologi-cal association says that paresis is now probably the best known in its symptoms pathology and morbid anatomy of all the forms of mental derangement General paralysis says Dr Hammond is the most common of all mental affections affec-tions perhaps The most suspicious of all the circumstances which may indicate the inception of general paralysis is a gradual but obvious alteration of the mental characteristics char-acteristics of the individual Ho forms relations re-lations often with women which are matters mat-ters of surprise to those who have long known him he makes investments such as no prudent man would make He may perpetrate perpe-trate frauds of various kinds or commit obscene ob-scene acts under circumstances which ore almost certain to result in detection Many d stressing instances of general paralytics of the highest respectability being arrested for petty thefts have boon reported A general state of exhilaration different from the patients ordinary manner and feeling may exist for several months or even years before any more obvious symptom makes its appearance Among the earliest of the mental symptoms generally noticed when the disease is fully established is an excessive anxiety in regard to matters which are really of no great importance The patient becomes regardless of his personal per-sonal appearance Neglects to change his linen and appears in publio half dressed His memory fails rapidly and his acts are eccentric and absurd A patient of mine sent homo a wagon load of snow shovels + another purchased all tho turkey eggs ho could get and the other drained the florist of tulip bulbs In the vast majority of cases the slight mental depression which exists in the beginning of general paralysis paraly-sis disappears either suddenly or gradually gradu-ally and exaltation takes its place A ten dency to erotic delusions almost reaching to the extent of satyriasis and a market increase in sexual appetite and power are often witnesses In my experience the first sign of loss of power ono which is sometimes observed before any evidence o f mental derangement is a slight defect o f articulation duo to paralysis of the lips The words national intelligencer are almost al-most impracticable to the general paralytic + and in trying to pronounce them he concentrates concen-trates his whole attention on the act Headache is generally a symptom from the very beginning It is a notable character istic of paralysis that remissions in its intensity in-tensity generally occur during which the symptoms abate in violence and the patients pa-tients friends imagine he is certainly recovering re-covering The duration of general paralysis 1 paral-ysis is variable Sometimes death result in a few months and at others it may be deferred de-ferred for five or Eix years The averag period is aboutthroeyears General para ysis is almost Invariably fatal Dr Julius Mickle member of the Roy al College of Physicians in London give this admirable definition of paresis General Gen-eral paralysis is a disease of the nervou system especially of the brain marked b Y disorders of motility viz ataxy and finally fin-ally paresis usually following a certai I course and order of devolopement especially especi-ally obvious in the apparatus of speech and locomotion also but in less degree by sensory disorders and mental symptom which tend toward dementia but consist in i the early stages in the exaltation of fee 1 ing or even expansive delirium and lastly marked by eel tain organic changes in th ° encephalon often in the spinal chord and membranes and sympathetic ganglia This significant paragraph appeared in i Truth last week Who would have thought that William B Curtis the athlete could ever bo nervously ner-vously prostrated 1 He was one of tho strongest of men and the most temperate of livers He loved beef and mutton reveled I rev-eled in fresh air and bad no use for alcohol or tobacco There is some special cause for the nerve ailments which prostrate thousands of all sorts and conditions of men yearly in this city and the doctors would confer an inestimable benefit if they I would find out what it is and how to ObViate f ObVi-ate it Queries like this are heard constantly in every great American city But the medical i I medi-cal faculty have found out and have as Hamilton Dana Hammond Smith Mick o and others quoted hereinbefore show familiarized I famil-iarized themselves with th accurately the i causes and the course of development of I these nerve ailments which prostrate thousands thou-sands of all sorts and conditions of men Dr Verga a high authority says Abuse of the moral and intellectual powers or of the cerebral functions produces paresis Dr Micklo describes the exciting causes as Chronic alcoholic intoxication unmet tionaule disease of the brain and meningos sexual excesses cranial injuries exposure f to solar beat violent and protracted emotions emo-tions excessive mental labor and deficient V time for sleep and recreation I So you fellow manfor not one woman has paresis where four men fall victims I woman being in all things the better half of the race you fellow toller may become a paretic not only from overIndulgence in apples of Sodom but as well by drinking and eating to excess by working too long and too hard in the hot sun by indulging I I I I in over much grief or a protracted spree of joy and by working or playing or feasting j or frolicking when you ought to be sleeping and resting And as you are more likely to have paresis if married than single and if a brain rather than a muscle worker and especially between the ages of twenty five and sixty bewareBeware of burning lifes candle at both ends 1 J P B Children Cry for Pitchers Castoria When Baby was sick we gave her Castoria When she was a Child she cried for Castorta When she became Miss she cuing to Castoria When she hI Children clie gave them Castor I |