CRAMP, a painful spasmodic contraction of muscles, com monest in the limbs, but also affecting certain internal organs. This disorder is probably of reflex nervous origin. Cramp in the limbs comes on suddenly, often during sleep, the patient being roused by agonizing pain in the calf of the leg or back of the thigh. During the paroxysm the muscular fibres affected form a hard knot. The attack in general lasts but a few seconds, and suddenly departs, but relief may come more gradually during a period of minutes or even hours. A liability to cramp is often associated with a rheumatic or gouty tendency. Exposure to cold will also bring it on and to this is probably to be ascribed its occurrence in swimmers. Cramp of the extremities is one of the most distressing accompaniments of cholera, and is common in parturition, just before delivery.
Writer's Cramp, or Scrivener's Palsy, is a special example of functional spasm affecting certain muscles when engaged in the performance of acts, the result of education and long usage, but not occurring when the same muscles are employed in acts of a different kind.
The symptoms are in the first instance a gradually increasing difficulty in making the movements required for the work in hand. Taking, for example, the case of writers, the pen cannot be moved with freedom. At an early stage of the disease the difficulty may largely be overcome by persevering efforts, but ultimately, the muscles of the fingers, and even those of the forearm, are seized with cramp, and writing is impossible. Sometimes the fingers, instead of being cramped, move in a disorderly manner and the pen cannot be grasped, while in other rare instances a kind of paralysis affects the muscles of the fingers, and they are powerless to make the movements necessary for holding the pen. It is only in the act of writing that these phenomena present themselves ; for all other movements the fingers and arms possess their natural power. The same symptoms are observed and the same remarks apply mutatis mutandis in the case of musicians, artists, compositors, seamstresses, tailors and many mechanics in whom this affection may occur. Indeed, although actually a rare disease, no muscle or group of muscles in the body which is specially called into action in any particular occupation is exempt from liability to this functional spasm.
The pathology of writer's cramp is unknown, but it is believed that the disease is not a local one of muscles or nerves, but is an affection of the central nervous system. It never occurs under thirty years of age, and is more frequent in males than females. In its treatment the first requisite is absolute cessation from the employment which caused it.
rings anciently worn as a cure for cramp and "falling-sickness," or epilepsy. The legend is that the first one was presented to Edward the Confessor by a pilgrim on his return from Jerusalem, its miraculous properties being explained to the king. At his death it passed into the keeping of the abbot of Westminster, by whom it was used medically and was known as St. Edward's Ring. The belief grew that the successors of Edward inherited his powers, and that the rings blessed by them worked cures. Hence arose the custom for the successive sov ereigns of England each year on Good Friday to bless a number of cramp-rings. The ceremony survived to the reign of Queen Mary, but the belief in the curative powers of similar circlets of sacred metal has lingered on even to the present day.
See F. G. Waldron, The Literary Museum (1792) ; see also Notes and Queries, vol. vii., 1853 ; vol. ix., 1878.