Talk:Marie Wittman/Iconographie

Page 5

French

W... Marie, lingere, nee a Paris, est entree dans le service de M. Charcot le 6 mai 1877: elle etait alors agee de dix-huit ans.

Renseignements fournis pa la malade - Pere, d'origine suisse, charpentier, sobre, caractere violent: un jour, dans un acces de colere, il aurait voulu jeter notre malade par la fenetre. Il est devenu fou, et a ete conduit a Sainte-Anne d'ou il aurait ete transfere en province, au moment de la guerre.

Mere, lingère, morte il y a quatre ans d'une affection chronique de la poitrine (toux, hemopysies): sobre, attaques de nerfsseulement apres contrariétes; - elle avait ete orpheline de bonne heure.

Pas de consanguinite.

Neuf enfants, dont cinq son morts, quarte de convulsions, une d'epilepsie à douze ans; un garcon, age de dix-huit ans, n'a pas d'accidents nerveux ais aurait en quelques hemoptysies: - un autre garcon a ete place a la mort de la mere: on ne sait ce qu'il est devenu:- enfin une fille, qui est dans un orphelinat, serait, parait-i;, sujette a des "faiblesses" (1879).

Notre malade aurait ete elevee au sein par sa mere, aurait marche de bonne heure; mais, a vingt-deux mois, elle aurait eu des convulsions a la suite desquelles elle serait devenue paralytique, sourde et sans parole.

C'est vers l'age de sept ans que sa situation se serait amelioree. Durant cette periode, acces de colere, rougeole, croutes dans les cheveux, ophtalmie chronique qui n'a pas laisse de traces; engelures tres accusees.

• C'est que qui explique le peu de details que nois possedons sur les ascendants de la malade.

English

W ... Marie, lingere, born in Paris, entered the service of M. Charcot on May 6, 1877: she was then eighteen years old.

Information provided by the patient - Father, of Swiss origin, carpenter, sober, violent character: one day, in a fit of anger, he would have liked to throw our patient out the window. He became mad, and was taken to Sainte-Anne from where he would have been transferred to the provinces, at the time of the war.

Mother, linen maid, died four years ago from a chronic affection of the chest (cough, hemopysis): sober, attacks of nerve only after annoyances; - she had been orphaned early.

No consanguinitis.

Nine children, five of whom died, four from convulsions, one from epilepsy at twelve; a boy, aged eighteen, has no nervous accidents but would have had a few hemoptysis: - another boy was placed after the mother's death: we do not know what became of him: - finally a girl, who is in an orphanage, is said to be subject to "weaknesses" (1879).

Our patient would have been brought up at the breast by her mother, would have walked early; but, at twenty-two months, she would have had convulsions after which she would have become paralytic, deaf and speechless. It was around the age of seven that her situation improved. During this period, fits of anger, measles, crusts in the hair, chronic ophthalmia which did not leave traces; very marked frostbite.

• This is what explains the few details that we have on the ancestors of the patient.

Page 6

French

W... a peu frequente l'ecole parce qu'elle etait mauvaise; aussi, sait-elle a peine lire et ecrire. Elle etait tres susceptible, se disputant avec ses parents, se fachant pour le motif le plus futile, ayant des violentes coleres dans lesqueles elle se roulait par terre; sa mere lui jetait de l'eau au visage: elle se remettait, pleurant er riant

A douze ans, elle fut mise en apprentissage pour appendre la fourrure, dans une maison ou elle resta deux ans. Des la permiere annee, elle fut sujette a des accidents nerveux plus garves que ceux qu'elle avait eus jusqu'a cette epoque: elle perdait connaissance, urinait sous elle. Comme ces phenomenes survenaient surtout la nuit, on put la garder. Durant la seconde annee (treize ans), son patron, si on l'en croit, l'embrassait chaque fois qu'il trouvait seule et aurait essaye, mais en vain, d'avoir des rapports avec elle. Sous l'influence de ces tribulations, les crises nerveuses auraient augmente de frequence et Marie aurait commence a avoir des secousses:

"Tout ce que je tenais dans mes mains m'echappait et ma patronne, supposant que je le faisais expres ou que j'agissais par colere, me faisant payer les objets que je cassais." Un jour, elle s'est enfuie, est rournee chez sa mere, disant que son patron avait voulu la battre. Celui-ci, pretextant de sa maladie, n'essaya pas de la reprendre.

De quatorze à quinze ans, W... demeura avec se mere, travaillant a la lingerie. C'est alors qu'elle fit la connassaince d'un ouvrier bijoutier, Louis, avec lequel elle eut des relations.

Ayant perdu sa mere (quinze ans) W... retourna chez son patron, le marchand de fourrures. Peu apres, elle eut avec lui des rapports sexuels qui se renouvelerent pendant son séjour (huit mois). Enfin, comme cet homme lui deplaisant, qu'elle ne voulait plus ceder a ses desirs, elle s'enfuit et se refugia ches une amie de se mere. Huit jours plus tard, elle quitta cette dame pour entrer a l'hopital en qualite de fille de service.

• Le plus souvent elle avait des attaques apres le coit; une fois, elle en aurait en pendant l'acte meme. Les attaques auraient étè plus rares.

English

W... hardly attended school because she was bad; also, she can barely read and write. She was very touchy, arguing with her parents, getting angry for the most trivial reason, having violent anger in which she rolled on the ground; her mother threw water in her face: she was recovering, crying and laughing

At twelve years old, she was apprenticed to learn fur, in a house where she stayed for two years. From the first year, she was subject to nervous accidents more severe than those she had had until this time: she was losing consciousness, urinating under her. As these phenomena occurred mainly at night, one could keep it. During the second year (thirteen), her boss, if we are to believe it, would kiss her whenever he found herself alone and would have tried, but in vain, to have intercourse with her. Under the influence of these tribulations, the nervous crises would have increased in frequency and Mary would have started to have tremors:

"Everything I held in my hands escaped me and my boss, assuming I was doing it on purpose or acting out of anger, making me pay for the items I broke." One day, she ran away, returned to her mother's house, saying that her boss had wanted to beat her. The latter, on the pretext of his illness, did not try to recover it.

From fourteen to fifteen, W... stayed with her mother, working in the laundry. It was then that she made the acquaintance of a jeweler, Louis, with whom she had relations.

Having lost her mother (fifteen years old) W... returned to her boss, the fur trader. Shortly after, she had sexual intercourse with him which was repeated during his stay (eight months). Finally, as this man displeased her, whom she no longer wanted to give in to her desires, she fled and took refuge in a friend of her mother. Eight days later, she left this lady to enter the hospital as a duty maid.

• Most often she had attacks after the coitus; once she would have it during the act itself. Attacks would have been rarer.

Page 7

French

La, elle noua des relations avec un jeuene homme qu'elle allait voir ses jours de sortie. Au bout de trois ou quatre mois, elle abandonna l'hopital, alla passer huir jours a la campange avec son amant (Alphonse) qui lui comprimait la region ovarienne droite lorsqu'elle avait ses attaques.

Revenue a Paris, elle demanda asile dans un couvent rue du Cherche-Midi. Les attaques etaient presque constamment nocturnes. Là, nouvel amoureux, Louis, deuxieme du nom, qu'elle revoit souvent dans ses attaques. Elle n'etait, d'ordinaire, malade que la nuit; mais, deux mois apres son entree, elle aurait eu une attaque le jour et aurait dechire du linge. On la congedia, et afin de faciliter son admission dans le service special des epileptiques, elle vint a la Salpetriere comme fille de service. Elle en remplit les fonctios durant quelques jours, prit un lit a l'infirmerie et enfin fut recue dans la section des epileptiques le 6 mai 1877.

1877. 7 mai - Hemianesthesie du cote droit; diminution de la sensibilite au bras gauche. Hyperesthesie ovarienne droite, s'exagerant a l'approche dea attaques. W... est grande (1m, 64), d'une forte corpulence (70 kilog.). Elle est blonde et d'un teint lymphatique. La peau est blanche et offre a la fois, de nombreuses ephelides. Les seins sont tres volumineux. Cicatrice a la partie superieure et anterieure de la cuisse gauche.

Son intelligence attient a piene la moyenne. La memoire est assez bonne; mais W. pense qu'elle a diminue depuis un an, ce qu'elle attribue a l'usage frequent de l'ether. Son regard est brillant; la vue et le contact des hommes produisent chez elle une espece d'excitation particuliere. W... est peu active, s;irrite facilement, mais cela ne dure pas. Avec quelque habilete, il est aise de la conduire. Les allures de W... sont tout a fait celles des hysteriques. Elle place a la tete de son lit toutes sortes d'objets: une pelote bleue, des roses artificielles, des images a couleurs voyantes, de medailles religieuses, etc. Elle porte un scapulaire.

English

There, she formed a relationship with a young man whom she was going to see on his days out. At the end of three or four months, she left the hospital, went to spend a week in the countryside with her lover (Alphonse) who compressed her right ovarian region when she had her attacks.

Back in Paris, she asked for asylum in a convent in the rue du Cherche-Midi. The attacks were almost always nocturnal. There, new lover, Louis, second of the name, whom she sees often in her attacks. Usually she was ill only at night; but, two months after her entry, she would have had an attack during the day and would have torn laundry. She was dismissed, and in order to facilitate her admission to the special epileptic service, she came to the Salpetriere as a service maid. She fulfilled the functions for a few days, took a bed in the infirmary and finally was received in the epileptics section on May 6, 1877.

1877. May 7 - Hemianesthesia on the right side; decreased sensitivity to the left arm. Right ovarian hyperesthesia, exaggerated with the approach of attacks. W ... is tall (1m, 64), with a strong build (70 kilog.). She is blonde and has a lymphatic complexion. The skin is white and at the same time offers numerous freckles. The breasts are very large. Scar on the upper and front part of the left thigh.

Her intelligence is very close to the average. The memory is quite good; but W. thinks it has been declining over the past year, which she attributes to the frequent use of ether. Her gaze is brilliant; the sight and the contact of men produce in her a peculiar kind of excitement. W ... is not very active, gets irritated easily, but it does not last. With some skill it is easy to drive it. W ... looks like hysterics. She places all kinds of objects at the head of her bed: a blue ball, artificial roses, brightly colored images, religious medals, etc. She wears a scapular.

Page 8

French

14 mai - W... est en attaques. Decubitus dorsal. Face rouge, dirigee a gauche; paupieres closes, globes oculaires portés en bas et a gauche; pupulles normales; rigidite generale dans l'extension; doigts flechis, le pouce sous les autres. La bouche entr'ouverte laisse sortir constamment un peu d'ecume. De temps en temps, secousses qui soulevent les bras et les epaules. C'est sur cettes rigidite generale, qui se prolonge durant plusieurs heures, que se greffent pour ainsi dire les attaques elles-memes.

Periode epileptoide - La rigidite augmente; la respiration, qui etaut assez rapide, se suspend, la congestion de la face s'accentue davantage; l'ecume est plus abondante. Parfois, on note quelques secousses tetaniques.

Period clonique -Apres un court repos, on observe des mouvements de balancement de la tete qui, bientot, se souleve et bat l'oreiller durant quelques secondes.

Period de delire - Respiration plus frequente; pupilles dilatees, petites plaintes; mouvements des levres; la malade parle bas, sans qu'on l'entende d'abord; plus, elle appelle: "Blanche!... Blanche!" (C'est le nom de la soeur.) "Ah! ils sont tombés!... Blanche!... Blanche!..." Elle revient a elle; regarde d'un air etonne: "J'etais donc malade..." Elle se plaint d'avoir mal a la tete, la vue embrouillee et d;etre fatiguee.

English

May 14 - W ... is in attack. Supine. Red face, directed to the left; eyelids closed, eyeballs carried down and to the left; normal pupils; general stiffness in extension; flexed fingers, thumb under the others. The half-open mouth constantly lets out a little foam. From time to time, jerks that lift the arms and shoulders. It is on this general rigidity, which lasts for several hours, that the attacks themselves are grafted, so to speak.

Epileptoid period - Stiffness increases; the respiration, which is fairly rapid, is suspended, the congestion of the face is more accentuated; the foam is more abundant. Sometimes, there are some tetanus twitches.

Clonic period -After a short rest, we observe rocking movements of the head which, soon, rises and beats the pillow for a few seconds.

Period of delirium - Breathing more frequently; dilated pupils, small complaints; lip movements; the patient speaks low, without being heard at first; more, she calls: "Blanche! ... Blanche!" (That's the sister's name.) "Ah! They fell! ... Blanche! ... Blanche! ..." It comes back to it; looks in astonishment: "So I was sick ..." She complains of having a headache, blurred vision and being tired.