Hysteria

Hysteria is a disease which occurs chiefly in women either at the period of puberty or at that of the climacteric. The characteristic symptom of hysteria is the well-known hysterical fit, the broad features of distinction between which, and an epileptic, attack, are the absence of the complete loss of consciousness, of tongue-biting and of lividity, and the noisiness and violence of movement, but avoidance of the infliction of any actual injury, which occur in a hysterical attack. The distinction is not, however, an easy matter in all cases. Other symptoms met with in hysteria are the altered mental condition, perverted sensation (whether it take the form of exalted sensibility, liypercsslhesia, or loss of sensibility, ancesthesia), paralysis, and loss of voice. The treatment of hysteria is usually a question of moral influence rather than of drug administration.