Cases 558 and 559. (Smyly, April, 1917.)
A soldier was out with a bombing party when a shell burst. He came to in a casualty clearing station, and was sent on to Salonica, deaf, dumb and jumpy. Two months later, an attempt at hypnosis failed; faradism of vocal cords failed.
The patient dreamed one night that if he vomited he could speak. Ipecac produced vomiting without speech. The patient, however, wanted a second dose, and while waiting for it, uttered an exclamation, which he did not himself hear, however. In the meantime, Dr. Smyly had been trying to hypnotize a second soldier, dumb but not deaf. This man’s dug-out had been blown in on him seven months before, whereupon the patient became very shaky, but did not become sick for a week. He was then sent to hospital, and his voice gradually disappeared. He suffered from violent headache and spasmodic movements of the arms and legs. Suggestion seemed powerless, and ether was unexpectedly given to the patient. While going under the ether, he said, “Oh dear, oh dear” several times indistinctly. It seems that another physician had already tried to cure the patient of dumbness by removing teeth without an anesthetic.
While this therapy was proceeding with the dumb man, the deaf-and-dumb man disappeared. It seems that the smell of the gas had caused him to take refuge on an outhouse-roof. The next day he had recovered voice and hearing completely, partly from shock and partly through suggestion.
The etherized patient did not recover voice but lost the spasmodic movements and his insomnia. A week later ether was again administered, and the patient was strapped down; as he was coming to, faradism was applied to the head and face. The patient then quickly recovered his voice and still retains it.