Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble itAnstie, Francis Edmund
Science
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it
Anstie, Francis Edmund
Neuralgia
in a considerable number of those very bad cases which occur in the
degenerative period of life; but if anyone desires to see the proof of
the power it sometimes exerts, even in extreme cases, he should study
the two most remarkable cases treated by Prof. Niemeyer, of Tubingen,
and reported by Dr. Wiesner.[44] The patients were respectively aged
sixty-four and seventy-four, and the duration of the neuralgia had been
respectively five and twenty-nine years; in both the pain was of the
severest type, and in both the success was most striking. In one of them
every possible variety of medication, and several distinct surgical
operations for excision of portions of the affected nerve, had been
quite vainly tried. The cases are altogether among the most interesting
facts in therapeutics that have ever been recorded. Dr. Russell Reynolds
has also told me of a case under his own care, in which a lady, who had
been the victim, for twenty years, of an extremely severe neuralgia of
the ophthalmic division of the fifth, which attacked her daily, and had
caused great injury to her general health and nutrition, was not merely
benefited, but the affection absolutely removed, at any rate for a long
period, by a single application of the current. I have personally seen
no such remarkable cases as these but I have had some extremely severe
cases under my care in which the effect of the current was to arrest the
pain in a few applications, and procure a remission for several days, or
even weeks. And I have had several slighter cases which were as much
cured, to all appearance, as any disease can be, by any remedy.
As a general rule, neuralgia of the limbs requires to be treated with a
more powerful current than neuralgia of the face (twenty cells instead
of ten). In the latter case, indeed, it is necessary to be exceedingly
cautious (commencing with five cells), since a current of high power has
been known to produce most serious effects upon the deeper-seated
organs; the retina has been permanently paralyzed, by too strong a
current applied on the face, and still graver dangers attend the
incautious use of galvanization of the brain or of the sympathetic, of
which we have now to speak.
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