Shell-shock: Impairment of vision (even commanded men to fire on kindred troops!) Improvement by verbal suggestion, faradization, injections.
A sergeant-major, 29, in private life a bookkeeper, said that shrapnel struck the ground in front of him and burst as it struck. Unconscious for a moment, the sergeant-major thereafter saw everything imperfectly, led his men in the wrong direction, and even commanded them to fire in the direction of his own troops.
Seven days afterwards the eyes looked normal, fundi were normal, vision was reduced to the perception of hand movements; with a plus 10 sphere the right eye could count fingers at 5 c.m. and with a plus 8 sphere the left eye could count fingers at 3 c.m. There was a right frontal analgesia.
Treatment: Sweating; rest in bed for several weeks; assurance of complete recovery. There was a slow but constant improvement, aided by faradization and injections of strychnine sulphate into the temporal region, but the prospect of a return to the front retarded the improvement.
Re injections into the temple, see also Case 521 of Bruce. Re cure of blindness, Grasset has a case of a blind deafmute who was cured by a nurse. She put a pencil in his hand and guided the pencil while she wrote a question. The patient replied in very good MSS. In blind deafmutes sight is described as returning first, hearing next, and speech last.
For other cases of blindness, see especially under Section C, Cases 433 to 438, with discussions thereunder.
Re retardation of improvement by the prospect of further military service, Lewandowski has insisted upon the strong factor of the wish in all such functional conditions. Lewandowski wants all functional cases, however, to be sent to duty in the rear or to be discharged as unfit.