Be of good cheer, Annette and Jeff Ricker,
to be sung to the tune of, Bring a Torch, Jennette, Isabella.
Well, perhaps not. But I didn't want Jeff to get that sinking
feeling that must so depress the SETI people -- that everybody's
listening, nobody's transmitting. Thank you very much for
the questions and for the answers!! (Others very probably
would have written if they wern't out on the streets trying to
trade food for multiple choice items, or whatever they do to
make up exams.) We listen, we learn.
Trouble with me is that I only know the answers to questions
that nobody seems to ask. Still, this might interest. It's from
the English tranlation of Pinel's 1800 Treatise on Insanity, which
translation, I'd better warn you, has been recently challenged as
very misleading. It's unsure that that the English version is a
safe account of Pinel, but somebody thought this, circa 1806:
"Cold bathing," says Mr. Halsam [?] "... has been separately
used for the cure of insanity [too infrequently] to draw any
satisfactory conclusions. I may, however, safely affirm that in
many instance paralytic affections [catatonia?] have in a few
hours supervened on cold bathing...."
Dr. Ferriar [?] ... in cases of melancholia advises the cold,
and in mania the warm bath. The only case, however, which
he adduces in support ... was treated successively by opium,
camphor, purgatives and electricity. General experiments
of this nature are, perhaps, more calculated to perpetuate
than to dissolve uncertainty.....
It has been said, the bath of surprise [is] a valuable
remedy... The superiority of the unexpected application
of cold water, has been ascribed to an interruption of
the chain of delirious ideas, induced by the suddenness
of the shock.... Van Helmont's [?] practice was to
detain the patient in the bath for some minutes....
This method, however successful in some instances,
might in other be extremely dangerous, and [ought to be]
...resorted to [only] in cases almost hopeless, and where
other remedies are ineffectual; such as in violent paroxysms
of regular periodic mania, inveterate continued insanity,
or insanity complicated with epilepsy."
-David
Jeff Ricker wrote:
> Annette Taylor asked some questions about ECT. ...snip...
> > --sometimes I don't get answers ...snip..
> Join the club. ...snip...
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David G. Likely, Department of Psychology,
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, N. B., E3B 5A3 Canada
History of Psychology:
http://www.unb.ca/web/psychology/likely/psyc4053.htm
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