Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it — John Shaqi
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble itAnstie, Francis Edmund
Science
Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it
Anstie, Francis Edmund
Neuralgia
There is, however, one variety of neuralgia from mal-nutrition which
deserves special consideration, viz., that which is occasionally
produced as an after-effect of mercurial salivation. I have only seen
one instance of this affection, but several are recorded. [Such, at
least, is my impression, but I have not been able to find the reports of
them.] My patient was a woman of somewhat advanced years when she first
came under my notice, but her malady had (though with long
intermissions) existed ever since she was a young girl in service. At
that early date she was severely salivated by some energetic but
misguided practitioner, for an affection which was called pleurisy, but
(according to her description) might well have been only pleurodynia, to
which servant girls are so very subject. At any rate, the consequences
of the medication were most disastrous. Not only did she then and there
lose every tooth in her head and suffer extensive exfoliations from the
maxillæ, but after this process was over she began to suffer frightfully
from neuralgic pains in both arms and in both legs. Tonic medicines and
a change to sea-air brought about a tardy and temporary cure; but from
that moment her nervous system never recovered itself. Whenever she took
cold, or was over-fatigued, or depressed from any bodily or mental
cause, she was certain to experience a recurrence of the pains. At the
time of her application to me she was suffering from an attack of more
than ordinary severity, and which had lasted a long time without showing
any signs of yielding. She apparently could not find words to express
the acuteness of her sufferings. All along the course of the sciatic
nerve in the thigh, all down the course of the middle cutaneous and long
saphenous branches of the anterior crural, in the musculo-spiral,
radial, and the course of the ulnar nerves, and also, in a more
generalized way, in the gastrocnemii, in the soles of the feet, and in
the palms of the hands, the pains were of a tearing character, which she
described as resembling "iron teeth" tearing the flesh. The pains
recurred many times daily; her life was a perfect burden to her, and
always had been during these attacks. This patient was under my
observation, on various occasions, during several years, and I
established the fact that cod-liver oil always did very great good. But
it was evident that nothing would remove the tendency to the recurrence
of the pains. I should mention, as additional proof of the extent to
which the mercurial poison had shattered the nervous system of this
woman, that she had violent muscular tremors at the time of her first
attack, and on several subsequent occasions. A more completely ruined
life was never seen; the poor woman had been on the highway to promotion
in the service of a nobleman when she was mercurialized, but her whole
prospects were blighted by the serious danger to her health which was
caused by the preposterous antiphlogisticism of her medical attendant.
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