Telegraphic Paralysis

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 Victorian London - Disease - 'telegraphic paralysis'
Telegraph clerks will hear with alarm of telegraphic paralysis, a new malady reported by a French physician to the Academie des Sciences. An employé who had been engaged in a telegraph office for nine years, found that he could not form clearly the letters U, represented by two dots and a stroke, I by two dots and S by three dots. On trying to trace the letters, his hand became stiff and cramped. He then endeavoured to use his thumb alone, and this succeeded for two years, when his thumb was similarly attacked, and subsequently tried the first and second fingers, but in two months these were also paralysed. Finally he had recourse to the wrist which also shortly became disabled. If he forced himself to use his hand, both hand and arm shook violently and cerebral excitement ensued. It appears that this disorder is very common amongst telegraph clerks.

from The Graphic, April 1875

Jim Stapleton
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