Now, it is vain to speak of all
of these cases as hysterical, or as merely mimetic. It is quite sure
that in the graver examples exercise quickens the pulse curiously, the
tire shows in the face, or sometimes diarrhoea or nausea follows
exertion, and though while under excitement or in the presence of some
dominant motive they can do a good deal, the exhaustion which ensues is
out of proportion to the exercise used.
I have rarely seen such a case which was not more or less lacking in
color and which had not lost flesh; the exceptions being those
troublesome instances of fat anaemic people which I shall by and by speak
of more fully.
Perhaps a sketch of one of these cases will be better than any list of
symptoms. A woman, most often between twenty and thirty years of age,
undergoes a season of trial or encounters some prolonged strain. She may
have undertaken the hard task of nursing a relative, and have gone
through this severe duty with the addition of emotional excitement,
swayed by hopes and fears, and forgetful of self and of what every one
needs in the way of air and food and change when attempting this most
trying task.
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