It is always preceded by an uncomfortable
feeling in the head, and pain in the back, mental hebetude, and
slight depression. The _nisus generativus_ is greatly increased,
and he says that, if in that condition, he has full and free
seminal emissions during sleep, the excitement passes off; if
not, it goes on. A full dose of bromide or iodide of potassium
often, but not always, has the effect of stopping the excitement,
and a very long walk sometimes does the same. When the
excitement gets to a height, it is always followed by about a
week of stupid depression." In the same article Clouston remarks:
"I have for a long time been impressed with the relationship of
the mental and bodily alternations and periodicities in insanity
to the great physiological alternations and periodicities, and I
have generally been led to the conclusion that they are the same
in all essential respects, and only differ in degree of intensity
or duration. By far the majority of the cases in women follow the
law of the menstrual and sexual periodicity; the majority of the
cases in men follow the law of the more irregular periodicities
of the _nisus generativus_ in that sex. Many of the cases in both
sexes follow the seasonal periodicity which perhaps in man is
merely a reversion to the seasonal generative activities of the
majority of the lower animals.
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