general paralysis of the insane

noun

1. GPI. Also called: general paresis.  dementia paralytica. a disease of the central nervous system: a late manifestation of syphilis, often occurring up to 15 years after the original infection, characterized by mental deterioration, speech defects, and progressive paralysis

Example Sentences

Bazar, for example, cites the symptoms of late stage syphilis, or what was then understood as “general paralysis of the insane.”

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Termed general paralysis of the insane, it was widely supposed by early practitioners to be caused by bad heredity, ‘weak character’ or moral turpitude.

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What we now know to be a late stage of the disease was at the time termed “general paralysis of the insane.”

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Toward the end of the century, as many as one in five people entering asylums had general paralysis of the insane.

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The pair took pus from the sores of syphilitics and injected it into patients suffering from general paralysis of the insane.

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