Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble itAnstie, Francis Edmund
Science
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it
Anstie, Francis Edmund
Neuralgia
vice, at the expense of a perpetual and almost fierce activity of mind
and muscle. The effects of solitary vice are a trite and vulgar story;
there is something far more difficult to understand and at the same time
far more worth understanding in the unconscious struggles of the
organism of a pure minded person with the tyranny of a powerful and
unsatisfied sexual system. It is in such cases, which it heeds all the
physician's tact to appreciate, that it is sometimes possible to do
striking service with bromide of potassium; but it will be necessary to
accompany the treatment with strict orders as to generous diet, and,
very likely, with the administration of cod-liver oil.
Having decided that bromide of potassium is the proper remedy, we must
use it in sufficient doses. Not even epilepsy itself requires more
decidedly that bromide, to be useful, shall be given in large doses. It
is right to commence with moderate ones (ten to fifteen grains), because
we can never tell, beforehand, that our patient is not one of those
peculiar subjects in whom that very disagreeable phenomenon--bromic
acne--will follow the use of large doses. But we must not expect good
results till we reach something like ninety grains daily. Let me add
that it is not so far as I know, by reducing any "hyperæsthesia" of the
external genitals, of which the patient is aware, that the remedy acts;
I have not seen such a nexus of disease and remedy in these cases.
3. Local Measures.--The external remedies which may be applied for the
treatment of neuralgia may be divided into (_a_) skin-stimulants; (_b_)
paralyzers of peripheral sensory nerves; (_c_) remedies adapted to
diminish local congestion; (_d_) remedies adapted to diminish arterial
pulsation; (_e_) electricity; (_f_) mechanical means of protection.
(_a_) Among the skin-stimulants blisters hold the highest place as a
remedy for neuralgia; indeed the assertion of Valleix, that they are the
best of all remedies, is still not very wide of the truth. They are by
no means universally applicable, and the degree to which their action
should be carried varies materially in different forms of the disease,
but they are of the greatest possible service in a large number of
instances.
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