Medical lectures and aphorisms / by Samuel Gee.

  • Gee, Samuel (Samuel Jones), 1839-1911.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Medical lectures and aphorisms / by Samuel Gee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/312 (page 53)
    Sometimes you cannot make out any pain or tenderness in the course of the nerves which correspond with the spot of pain in the spine. There may be pain elsewhere, besides in the back, but there is no anatomical connexion between the two seats of pain. This kind of irritable spine was deemed by Dr. Inman of Liverpool to be due to myalgia : and I believe that he was right. By myalgia he meant muscular pain, pain referred to the tendinous extremities of muscles. Myalgia is closely allied to fatigue. Speaking generally, we may say that myalgia is due to one or both of two things : either the muscle is overworked, or the whole health of the patient is lessened, so that exertion which could be easily borne in a robust condition becomes overwork in the weak con- dition, even though the exertion be small. The muscles of the vertebral column are especially prone to be overworked, because ‘ there is scarcely a single motion of the body in which one or more muscles attached to the spinous processes are not brought into operation, and there is, there- fore, throughout the whole day (except during absolute rest), a constant and unremitting strain upon the fibres by which the muscles are inserted ’ into the spinal column. (Inman, On Myalgia,