Essays on hypochondriasis, and other nervous affections / by John Reid.

  • Reid, John, 1776-1822.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on hypochondriasis, and other nervous affections / by John Reid. 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.

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    not observe any regularity in their recurrence. The seventh and eighth dorsal vertebrfe were extremely ten- der, and remained painful for some hours after pressure had been made, and nearly the whole of the cervical ver- tebree were also tender. This lady remained under my care between five and six weeks; leeches were applied to the affected parts of the spine, dry cupping, and three blisters. The pains in the head and palpitations were relieved almost from the commencement, the appetite improved, but the pain in the side, although a httle diminished in violence, continued troublesome, and oc- casionally returned with considerable severity. It is right to state, that once, for the space of three days, she was entirely free from pain, and this occurred imme- diately after the application of one of the blisters to the lower dorsal vertebrss. On the return of the pain she was desirous of trying the effect of a blister to the side, but it produced no alleviation whatever. A removal into the country, and perseverance in the use of applica- tions to the spine were now recommended, but as the pain in the side had not yet been completely relieved, her friends became impatient, and were induced to place her under the care of an empiric. Such disappointments we must be prepared to expect, but their occurrence is so rare, as not to invalidate the general principle. When these diseases have proved unusually obsti- nate, or the treatment has entirely failed, 1 have ge- nerally found that they have been complicated with others. The bones or intervertebral cartilages are in some instances affected, and the nervous structures are thereby disposed to repeated relapse. The heart may be the seat of incipient organic changes, which seems to keep up irritation in the nervous masses from which