or even longer. Hysterical fits in their fully-developed form are rarely seen in England, though common in France. In the chronic condition we find an extraordinary complexity of symptoms, both physical and mental. The physical symptoms are extremely diverse. There may be a paralysis of one or more limbs associated with rigidity, which may persist for weeks, months or years. In some cases, the patient is unable to walk; in others there are peculiarities of the gait quite unlike anything met with in organic disease. Perversions of sensation are usually present; a common instance is the sensation of a nail being driven through the vertex of the head (clavus hystericus). The region of the spine is a very frequent seat of hysterical pain. Loss of sensation (anaesthesia), of which the patient may be unaware, is of common occurrence. Very often this sensory loss is limited exactly to one-half of the body, including the leg, arm and face on that side (hemianaesthesia). Sensation to touch, pain, heat and cold, and electrical stimuli may have completely disappeared in the anaesthetic region. In other cases, the anaesthesia is relative or it may be partial, certain forms of sensation remaining intact. Anaesthesia is almost always accompanied by an inability to recognize the exact position of the affected limb when the eyes are closed. When hemianaesthesia is present, sight, hearing, taste and smell are usually impaired on that side of the body. Often there is loss of voice (hysterical aphonia). It is to such cases of hysterical paralysis and sensory disturbance that the wonderful cures effected by quacks and charlatans may be referred. The mental symptoms have not the same tendency to pass away suddenly. They may be spoken of as interparoxysmal and paroxysmal. The chief characteristics of the former are extreme emotionalism combined with obstructiveness, a desire to be an object of interest and a constant craving for sympathy which is often procured at an immense sacrifice of personal comfort. Obstructiveness is the invariable symptom. Hysteria may pass into absolute insanity.
The treatment of hysteria demands great tact and firmness on the part of the physician. The affection is a definite entity and has to be clearly distinguished from malingering, with which it is so often erroneously regarded as synonymous. Drugs are of little value. The moral treatment is all-important. In severe cases, removal from home surroundings and isolation, either in a hospital ward or nursing home, are essential, in order that full benefit may be derived from psychotherapeutic measures.
Bibliography.—Charcot, Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveuse (1877); S. Weir Mitchell, Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System especially in Women (1885); Buzzard, Simulation of Hysteria by Organic Nervous Disease (1891); Pitres, Leçons cliniques sur l’hystérie et l’hypnotisme (1891); Richer, Études cliniques sur la grande hystérie (1891); Gilles de la Tourette, Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’hystérie (1891); Bastian, Hysterical or Functional Paralysis (1893); Ormerod, Art. “Hysteria,” in Clifford Allbutt’s System of Medicine (1899); Camus and Pagnez, Isolement et Psychotherapie (1904). (J. B. T.; E. Bra.)
HYSTERON-PROTERON (Gr. ὕστερον, latter, and πρότερον,
former), a figure of speech, in which the order of words or phrases
is inverted, and that which should logically or naturally come
last is put first, to secure emphasis for the principal idea; the
classical example is Virgil’s “moriamur et in media arma
ruamus,” “let us die and charge into the thick of the fight”
(Aen. ii. 358). The term is also applied to any inversion in
order of events, arguments, &c.
HYTHE, a market town and watering-place, one of the Cinque
Ports, and a municipal and parliamentary borough of Kent,
England, 67 m. S.E. by E. of London on a branch of the South
Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 5557. It is beautifully
situated at the foot of a steep hill near the eastern extremity
of Romney Marsh, about half a mile from the sea, and consists
principally of one long street running parallel with the shore,
with which it is connected by a straight avenue of wych elms.
On account of its fine situation and picturesque and interesting
neighbourhood, it is a favourite watering-place. A sea-wall
and parade extend eastward to Sandgate, a distance of 3 m.
There is communication with Sandgate by means of a tramway
along the front. On the slope of the hill above the town stands
the fine church of St Leonard, partly Late Norman, with a very
beautiful Early English chancel. The tower was rebuilt about
1750. In a vault under the chancel there is a collection of
human skulls and bones supposed to be the remains of men killed
in a battle near Hythe in 456. Lionel Lukin (1742–1834),
inventor of the life-boat, is buried in the churchyard. Hythe
possesses a guildhall founded in 1794 and two hospitals, that
of St Bartholomew founded by Haimo, bishop of Rochester,
in 1336, and that of St John (rebuilt in 1802), of still greater
antiquity but unknown date, founded originally for the reception
of lepers. A government school of musketry, in which instructors
for the army are trained, was established in 1854, and has been
extended since, and the Shorncliffe military camp is within
212 m. of the town.
Lympne, which is now 3 m. inland, is thought to have been the original harbour which gave Hythe a place among the Cinque Ports. The course of the ancient estuary may be distinctly traced from here along the road to Hythe, the sea-sand lying on the surface and colouring the soil. Here are remains of a Roman fortress, and excavations have brought to light many remains of the Roman Portus Lemanis. Large portions of the fortress walls are standing. At the south-west corner is one of the circular towers which occurred along the line of wall. The site is now occupied by the fine old castellated mansion of Studfall castle, formerly a residence of the archdeacons of Canterbury. The name denotes a fallen place, and is not infrequently thus applied to ancient remains. The church at Lympne is Early English, with a Norman tower built by Archbishop Lanfranc, and Roman material may be traced in the walls. A short distance east is Shipway or Shepway Cross, where some of the great assemblies relating to the Cinque Ports were held. A mile north from Hythe is Saltwood Castle, of very ancient origin, but rebuilt in the time of Richard II. The castle was granted to the see of Canterbury in 1026, but escheated to the crown in the time of Henry II., when the murder of Thomas à Beckett is said to have been concerted here, and having been restored to the archbishops by King John remained a residence of theirs until the time of Henry VIII. It was restored as a residence in 1882. About 2 m. N.W. of Saltwood are remains of the fortified 14th-century manor-house of Westenhanger. It is quadrangular and surrounded by a moat, and of the nine towers (alternately square and round) by which the walls were defended, three remain.
The parliamentary borough of Hythe, which includes Folkestone, Sandgate and a number of neighbouring villages, returns one member. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area 2617 acres.
Hythe (Heda, Heya, Hethe, Hithe, i.e. landing-place) was known as a port in Saxon times, and was granted by Halfden, a Saxon thegn, to Christ Church, Canterbury. In the Domesday Survey the borough is entered among the archbishop’s lands as appurtenant to his manor of Saltwood, and the bailiff of the town was appointed by the archbishop. Hythe was evidently a Cinque Port before the Conquest, as King John in 1205 confirmed the liberties, viz. freedom from toll, the right to be impleaded only at the Shepway court, &c., which the townsmen had under Edward the Confessor. The liberties of the Cinque Ports were confirmed in Magna Carta and later by Edward I. in a general charter, which was confirmed, often with additions, by subsequent kings down to James II. John’s charter to Hythe was confirmed by Henry IV., Henry V. and Henry VI. These charters were granted to the Cinque Ports in return for the fifty-seven ships which they supplied for the royal service, of which five were contributed by Hythe. The ports were first represented in the parliament of 1365, to which they each sent four members.
Hythe was governed by twelve jurats until 1574, when it was incorporated by Elizabeth under the title of the mayor, jurats and commonalty of Hythe; a fair for the sale of fish, &c., was also granted, to be held on the feast of St Peter and St Paul. As the sea gradually retreated from Hythe and the harbour became choked up with sand, the town suffered the fate of other places near it, and lost its old importance.
