CATALEPSY, a peculiar motor phenom enon, not a disease, that is found in a number of nervous disorders. It consists of a persist ent muscular attitude of some part of the body, and may or may not be attended by uncon sciousness. Thus a person may place the right arm or leg, or another may so place the limb, in a peculiar, or awkward, or in fact any posi tion. This position is maintained by the pa tient for a very long time, usually a time much longer than a normal individual could maintain it. Almost any muscle group may be involved. The patients may squat on the floor, or stand on one leg for hours, or hold both arms in the air almost all day. There seems to be some form of muscle anesthesia and the position of the limb seems to be unknown and unfelt by the patient. This symptom is very frequent in cases of true hysteria (q.v.), and it is also found in a number of other affections that cluster about hysteria. Thus it is present in
somnambulism, in hypnosis, in a peculiar men tal state known as catatonia (q.v.) and in stu porous melancholia,— all of which have much in common, being affections superimposed on the hysterical nervous organization, a type of make-up of a character, whose main features are assuming a definite recognition by students of the functions of the nervous system. The normal functions of respiration, digestion and circulation continue. Prolonged cases demand forced feeding. Between attacks cold baths, tonics and various remedies are recommended. An emetic or a pinch of snuff may sometimes avert an attack. The disease still demands in vestigation, as its immediate cause is not known. Consult Janet, 'Mental State of Hys tericals' ; Raymond, 'Obsessions et Psychas thenies' ; Starr, 'Text-Book of Nervous Dis eases)