Lectures on diseases of the nervous system / delivered at Guy's Hospital by Samuel Wilks.

  • Wilks, Samuel, Sir, 1824-1911.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on diseases of the nervous system / delivered at Guy's Hospital by Samuel Wilks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    568/636 (page 554)
    “ When your head did hut ache, I knit my handkerchief about your brows.” Also, as you know, in 4 Othello ’ the main feature of the play lies in the loss of a handkerchief, which Desdemona produced for the object I have been mentioning. Desdemona. Why do you speak so faintly ? Are you not well ? Othello. I have a pain upon my forehead here. Desdemona. Faith, that’s with watching; ’twill away again : Let me but bind it hard, within this hour It will be well. Then, again, besides pressure, the application of cold gives relief, as a wet cloth bound round the temples. I have already alluded to the effects of cold and heat upon the nerves, and the resultant influence on the blood-vessels; thus, cold is said to depress the action of the nerve centres or ganglia, and heat to excite it; con- sequently the former would be used when we wished to remove nerve stimulation and cause a greater flow of blood, whilst heat would be used for a contrary purpose, as to check haemorrhage—at least I believe it is said that heat to the spine will repress haemor- rhage from the uterus, whilst cold will produce warmth in the extremities. However this may be, and on the supposition that the theory is true, there must be immense difficulties in the way of making the application to the appropriate part; so we must be content with the fact that it is cold, and not heat, which affords most relief in headache. It may be that the cold acts directly on the vessels to constringe them, and thus causes the diminution and lessened blood-supply. The object required is to lessen the force of the head-vessels, for it is certain that whilst the pulse at the wrist is low, and the whole body inclined to be cold, the head is hot and throbbing. As the cause is nervous, our agencies should be directed to the fountain-head, and thus it is by no means impro- bable that something maybe discovered which may have the power of affecting the sympathetic, and consequently curing the malady. For this purpose various remedies have suggested themselves, and theoretically galvanism to the neck or head would be beneficial. I have only used it a few times, and with some success. As regards remedies, when I first gave a lecture on this subject I said that I knew of none, and even now,‘in many cases, every known drug fails to have any effect. The fact that I can at the present time declare that means have been discovered which can ward off or even cure a sick headache, speaks volumes in favour of an advance in therapeutic knowledge. As these remedies act specially