A handbook of climatic treatment including balneology / by William R. Huggard.

  • Huggard, W. R. (William Richard)
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of climatic treatment including balneology / by William R. Huggard. 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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    One of the most troublesome forms of neuralgia is what is known as sciatica. Dr. William Bruce/ in a valuable paper analysing 418 cases, gives good reason for believing that sciatica, so-called, is really an inflammatory condition of the hip-joint; that the painful nerves are chiefly, not the sciatic nerve, but filaments from the anterior crural, the obturator, and the sacral plexus. Whether the affection is a neuritis or an inflammation of the hip-joint, the first indication in an acute case is absolute rest. Eest in bed, or even immobilisation by means of a long splint as recommended by Weir-Mitchell for sciatica, is the most effective measure. Dr. Mitchell Clarke ^ also advocates this method. Wet-packs also are useful in subduing the inflammatory condition. Only when all inflammation has subsided are massage and exercise free from risk and likely to be beneficial. Attention should at the same time be paid to the general measures indicated by the gouty or other morbid condition on which the arthritis depends. Tabes, Lateeal Scleeosis, and Disseminated Scleeosis Only in so far as syphilis may be the cause are these affections likely to be benefited by baths. And even then baths are useful only as an adjunct to specific treatment, as, for example, by inunction at Aix la Chapelle. Baths about the indifferent thermal point, whether simple, saline, or carbonic acid, may be used without fear of doing harm, provided that no acute process is going on; but hot baths are to be avoided. For such patients a dry climate is most desirable, and the extremes of heat and cold should be avoided. MiGEAINE AND HEADACHE Although migraine and the ordinary forms of headache are the outcome of different pathological conditions, they