Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/256

244 it is a matter of great importance to determine the precise source of the affection and the means of contending with it.

One of the most common neuralgias is a pain in the eyes; it is felt in the region of the trigeminal nerve, and frequently becomes almost unendurable and very obstinate. It occurs usually in single attacks, which return at various intervals and last sometimes only a few minutes, and sometimes a quarter of an hour or more. The painful feeling, which may be described as that of a boring, piercing, stretching, or tearing, generally radiates from a circumscribed spot in the neighborhood of the nervous ramifications, in the region of the eyes, face, and lower jaw, and may extend to the neighboring nervous regions, to the back of the head, the arms, and the breast. It not rarely becomes so fearfully intense and rasping that persons afflicted with it act as if mad, tossing themselves violently around and crying out in the most heart-rending manner. To this are added disorders of sensation. The eyes become red, vision is troubled with specks and spots, the flow of tears becomes excessive, the hearing is dulled or vexed with hummings, and the patient suffers from an unpleasant taste and burning in the nostrils. Companion afflictions set in, like twitchings and cramps of the facial muscles, eruptions on the skin, swellings, and a whole list of other disorders. To these bodily woes are added mental depression, life becomes a burden, and the sufferers are sometimes tempted to suicide.

This neuralgia may arise from a variety of causes; from a cold, an unsound tooth, from general sickness, or from debility or exhaustion. It is sometimes connected with disorders of remote organs, as of the digestive system, and by reflex action from pains prevailing there.

Sciatica, or hip-gout, is another frequently occurring neuralgia, which has its seat in the hip-nerve and its branches, and is thence transmitted through the whole lower part of the system, from the pelvis to the toes. The pain is usually confined to certain points, and rises on motion, and often at night, to great heights. It is a disease of middle age, prevailing with men and women, and originates from a variety of causes. The hip-nerve is exposed by its situation to be easily injured by cold and accidents; and the affection is often brought on from stagnation of blood, disorders of the lower body, and internal diseases. It is very persistent, and may interfere with business activity and occasion sickness through many years.

These diseases are cited as examples. Many other nerves are the seat and starting-points of pains which after long continuance give rise to an exaggerated sensitiveness of the whole nervous system, to increased acuteness in all the nervous regions, by which sound thought and feeling are deeply disturbed. It is evident