ST. VITUS'S DANCE. NOVEL CURE FOR THIS FORM OF PARALYSIS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 374, 5 June 1889, Page 6

ST. VITUS'S DANCE. NOVEL CURE FOR THIS FORM OF PARALYSIS.

A Patent Subjected to the Action" of Rotating Mirrors by Dr. Luys, Physician Of THE CHARITE HoSriTAL, i?ARIS, 1-5 Able to Leave after Three Weeks, axd ix Three Months is Perfectly Cured.

Ax interesting communication has been made by a physician of the Charite Hospital, Dr. Luys, to the Medical Society of the Paris Hospitals, on the particular form of paralysis known as St. Vitus's Dance. Dr. Luys said : — ' I present to the society a patient, forty-four 3 ears of age, who for four year* was subject to paralyse ar/ifante, unfcil it occurred to me to tiy on him lays of rotating minors, or the springes used for luring larks. The experiment was not only absolutely harmless, but it was authorised by the fact that all treatment employed until then by a number of my colleagu[e3 in the hospitals had failed. 1 When I first saw the patient, January 5, 1889, his morbid condition had all the mo^t typical characteristics of paralyse, agitanle (St. Vitufe's dance). Bebides the chaiacteristic trembling of the hands, there was a general quivering of the trunk, rigidity of the muscles of the neck, which, by a sort of torticolis, kept the head motionless on the spiral column. The features were immobile and plastered to the bony subjacent skeleton without any apparent folds. The patient was absolutely unable to carry a cup to his lips or to eat his soup ; he coulJ not eveu button his clothes without assistance, nor could he write ; foi four years it had been impossible for him to sign his name. His speech was confused and jerky ; he was also troubled with continual headache. • Hypnotic treatment with rotating mirrors was ab once commenced. During eight consecutive days the patient was made to gaze fixedly at the moving mirrors from about 20 to 30 minutes at a time. During this time his ca«e presented no apparent modifications, but after the eighth trial of the treatment an improvement showed itself in hi? condition, in a diminution of the trembling of the hands and a less acute cephalagie. After the fourteenth day, the imDrovement had made considerable progress ; the rigidity of the neck h id disappeared, the features had recovered their natural aspect and colour, hi? speech had become normal, and the trembling of the hands had diminished to such a point that the pa'ient could carry a tumbler halt filled with water to his mouth, while previously he had boon obliged, in order to drink unaided, to place the glass on a chair and get down on hit knees so as to take it between his lips. ' At the end of three weeks' treatment the patient had sufficiently improved to ask permission to leave the hospital and to resume his work. I induced him to prolong his stay in order to complete the treatment, and now. al the end of about three months, I consider that he is cured. ' It is an interesting fact that a morbid condition of Buch long standing and one which is considered as incurable, should have been so rapidly cured by the mere physical action of mirrors in rotation placed before the eyes of the patient. No verbal hypnotic suggestion was made to the patient duringthefirsbdaysof the treatment ; it was only towards its close, when the progress towards a cure was well marked, that some pugsrestions to cease trembling were made to him. As a matter of fact, the really efficacious action of this treatment belongs entirely to the strange influence first upon the eyes, and then on the nervous centres, of the vibrations of rays of light acting in a successive and rapid way.'