Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble itAnstie, Francis Edmund
Science
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it
Anstie, Francis Edmund
Neuralgia
These early syphilitic pains, in their violent aching character, and
their intermittence, occasionally resemble true neuralgia very closely;
but they are usually distinguished from it by their symmetrical
disposition and by their attacking several bones at once. Moreover, they
nearly always show the peculiarity of being distinctly aggravated by the
warmth and repose of bed even if they be not altogether absent (as is
not unfrequently the case) when the patient is up and moving about. A
typical case of this kind is not so likely to be confounded with
neuralgia as with rheumatism; but we occasionally meet with cases in
which the pains are localized in a manner much more resembling the
former. Thus I have met with several instances in which a patient,
entirely unconscious (or professing to be unconscious) of having been
syphilized, complained of violent pain in one tibia, recurring every
night at a certain hour, and at first undistinguishable from that
variety of sciatica in which the pain is principally felt in this
situation, especially as it was relieved by firm pressure, just as
neuralgia is in the early stages. And in one remarkable case, which came
under my care at Westminster Hospital, the resemblance to clavus was
most misleading:
H. A., aged nineteen, worker in a laundry, presented herself on account
of a violent pain in the right parietal region, recurring three times
daily with great regularity. The first two attacks occurred in the
day-time, the third, which was always the severest, woke her out of
sleep about midnight; the pain of this last was so agonizing that on
more than one occasion she had become delirious. The girl (whose
respectable appearance was against the notion of syphilis) was very
anæmic; not, however, with the tint either of anæmic from hæmorrhage, or
with that of chlorosis, exactly. It was rather a dirty sallowness of
skin; but the gums and the conjunctivæ were exceedingly bloodless, and
she complained of almost constant noises in the head. Menses scanty but
regular. There was a soft anæmic bruit with the first sound at the base
of the heart. Having failed to make any impression on the pains with
iron and with muriate of ammonia in large doses, I was led to observe
the fact that there was no diffuse soreness of the scalp, such as very
commonly occurs in clavus, in the intervals of the pains, and the mere
fact that there was this unusual circumstance in the case led me to
reconsider the diagnosis thoroughly. In order to be sure of not omitting
a point, I inquired, though without any expectation of an affirmative
answer, as to the possibility of syphilitic disease; the girl at once
confessed to having had sores, and examination detected a papular rash
about the shoulders and back and on both thighs. Small doses of mercury
greatly relieved the pain within a week, and cured it in less than three
weeks; and it was very remarkable that the anæmia, which had obstinately
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