The modern treatment of headaches / by Allan McLane Hamilton.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern treatment of headaches / by Allan McLane Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The degree of tension corresponds in measure with ' the severity of the headache. “ A few years ago I treated those cases with hot alkaline sprays, gently applied, and the use of hot fomentations combined with the use of the usual con- stitutional remedies. This mode of treatment has not been altogether satisfactory and during the past four years I have substituted for it the local abstraction of blood, for which I can allege unqualified success. A simple bleeding may relieve the headache, or it may have to be repeated in a day, a week, or a month. I have seen but four cases which were not perma- nently relieved by a bleeding repeated from two to six times. * * * To produce the bleeding no cut is required, the cavernous body is simply pinched and the blood flows freely until the tension has been reduced; then it ceases. The amount of blood drawn rarely exceeds one ounce. In many cases it is less than this, and in many cases a single drachm of blood removed will give the required relief. In cases of extreme congestion the flow will equal several ounces before it ceases. The quantity of blood being dependent upon the distention of the ves- sels and this corresponds with the severity of the symptoms.” One of the most common forms of headache is that known as migraine, and two varieties are recog- nized with reference to the pathological states which