TRANCE.
Under I I vsteria the treatment, moral and medicinal, of the hysterical condition which generally underlies trance will be found detailed. If the state of trance be not very " deep," the treatment described under Catalepsy will lie successful. Electricity in the form of a strong inter rupted current should he used in all cases, and when there is any evidence of a return to half-consciousness the battery should be at once applied to the arms and legs. Snuff, strong Ammonia, Nitrite of Amy], etc., may be used at the same time, hut they are of little value in genuine trance.
When these measures arc used at the same hour each day, as Dowers recommends, there may he induced a tendency to periodical waking, which will ultimately culminate in a cessation of the attack. Till then every attention must he paid to the maintenance c}f—lifr Feeding should he carried on by the rubber tube of the stomach-pump, introduced through the nose or mouth. Rectal alimentation may he essential also in pro
longed cases. Strong tea and coffee are indicated.
By the judicious application of warmth and skilful nursing much may be done to minimise the exhaustion sure to follow, especially in those cases where food cannot be administered.
Bromides arc clearly contraindicated. Antispasmodics as Musk, Valerian, .asafetida, Sumbul, and other antihysterical agents may be given by the bowel or by the nasal tube, hut they do little good.
As Strychnine so often aggravates the abnormal sensations complained of by the hysterical patient, the writer believes that the best drug treat ment in this affection may he found to be the steady administration of strychnine by the hypodermic syringe with the view of increasing the sensitiveness of the nerve centres and the peripheries of the sensory nerves and nerves of special sense.