Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble itAnstie, Francis Edmund
Science
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it
Anstie, Francis Edmund
Neuralgia
CASE II.--A young lady, aged twenty-four, suffered from neuralgia in the
leg. Galvanization (twenty cells Daniell), from the anterior tibial
region to the spine was found invariably to cut short the pain. I now
reversed the current; the effect was the same. After ten sittings I
suspended the treatment, as there had been no attack for three days; but
a week later the neuralgia returned in full fury. I resumed
galvanization from periphery to spine; after twelve more sittings the
attacks had become rare and slight. I continued treatment for eight days
longer, during the whole of which time there was no pain. It had not
recurred when I saw her fifteen months afterward.
CASE III.--H. G., a footman, aged twenty-three, applied to me at
Westminster Hospital, with neuralgia of the first and second divisions
of the right trigeminus, of six weeks' standing. The right eye was
bloodshot and streaming with tears, the skin of the right side of the
nose and right cheek was anæsthetic, the right levator palpebræ was
partially paralyzed. Hypodermic injections of morphia proved only very
temporarily beneficial. After a fortnight's treatment with this and with
flying blisters to the nape of the neck and the mastoid process, I
commenced the use of the constant current daily (ten cells, Weiss). The
first application (positive on nape, negative on infra-orbital foramen)
stopped the pain, and procured fourteen hours' immunity. On the next day
I reversed the current; the pain stopped after three minutes'
galvanization; it did not recur for four days, during which time,
however, I continued the daily use of the direct current. On the sixth
day of treatment the patient came to me with a somewhat severe paroxysm,
almost limited to the ophthalmic division; it was accompanied by
spasmodic twitchings of the eyelid, and copious effusion of altered
Meibomian secretion, looking like pus. Galvanization from supra-orbital
foramen to nape stopped the pain in five minutes. The next day the
patient presented himself, quite free from pain, which had not returned;
the conjunctiva was clear, and there was no visible Meibomian secretion.
Inverse galvanization was continued for ten days; but no recurrence of
the pain took place. The cure was permanent three months later.
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