Neuralgia : its various forms, pathology, and treatment : being the Jacksonian prize essay of the Royal college of surgeons for 1850 : with some additions / by C. Toogood Downing.

  • Downing, C. Toogood (Charles Toogood)
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Neuralgia : its various forms, pathology, and treatment : being the Jacksonian prize essay of the Royal college of surgeons for 1850 : with some additions / by C. Toogood Downing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    104/438 (page 80)
    that this painful malady consists in a functional derangement, the organic cause of which eludes us completely. In speculating upon the nature of this derange- ment, the important fact should never be lost sight of, that neuralgia, although generally a constitu- tional^ is sometimes strictly a local disorder. The former is indicated by the neuralgic diathesis,—a certain disturbance of the system, by which it is rendered more irritable,—and by the pains being erratic, shifting their position repeatedly without obvious cause; the latter is marked by a perma- nence and persistence of the suffering, its recurring constantly in the same nerve, and its being pro- duced by a topical excitant. Possibly the function of the painful nerve is similarly affected in both cases. There is probably the same local disturb- ance; but the sources of irritation are evidently distinct and peculiar. The notion of Fothergill that neuralgia is depen- dent on a cancerous diathesis is now generally allowed to be chimerical. The theory of its syphi- litic nature is equally fanciful; although, as I shall presently show, either cancer or syphilis may be instrumental in its production. The cases that are due to a rheumatic condition of the system I have already distinguished; and would merely observe.