A practical treatise on nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) : its symptoms, nature, sequences, treatment / by George M. Beard ; edited, with notes and additions, by A.D. Rockwell.

  • Beard, George M. (George Miller), 1839-1883.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) : its symptoms, nature, sequences, treatment / by George M. Beard ; edited, with notes and additions, by A.D. Rockwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    forms we find depression and a profound sense of misery, but in the nontoxic form the irritability is not so extreme, nor do we see such unreasonable outbursts of temper as in cases in which the nerve cells are actually poisoned by imperfectly trans- formed products. In considering the agencies of autotoxis and fatigue that pervert the normal func- tioning of the nerve cells, the great susceptibility of the neuron to traumatic agencies should not be for- gotten. The persistency and severity of neurasthenic symptoms, due to external mechanical agencies, are well known and have been widely discussed. Trau- matic neurasthenia is expressed in symptoms more profound and lasting than in most other forms. The construction of the highly-organized ganglion cells is wondrously complicated and delicate as com- pared with the cells of the tissues of the body in general. Its metabolism, therefore, suffers especial disturb- ance from external shock, which, in all probability, leads more readily to actual parenchymatous de- generation than disturbances from fatigue or ordinary toxic causes. In briefly discussing the rationale of physical and psychical methods of treatment as related to the neuron theory, I shall speak more especially of elec- tricity in referring to the former, both because there is a unique and striking analogy between the nervous and electric conductibility, and for the reason that