Word: catatonia
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...Brains, Brain cells contain protein of about the consistency of uncooked egg white. Alcohol, coffee, cocaine and anesthetics coagulate those brain proteins, as boiling hardens eggs. Bromides and thiocyanates thin out the proteins. In certain types of insanity (the manias) the brain apparently becomes permanently boiled. In other types (catatonia) the brain is diluted. Using drugs which give the opposite effect helps the various insane types, and sometimes cures. Lack of oxygen lets the brain get soft. Hence, said Wilder Dwight Bancroft (Cornell) who with his colleague G. Holmes Richter made these observations: "Aviators may become incapacitated temporarily when flying...