376 DISEASES OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVES. 



to expect the resolution of the remains of a process which has long 

 since subsided, as to restore the apoplectic cicatrix of the brain after 

 an attack of apoplexy, and thus to cure the hemiplegia. Indeed, 

 where the electric contractility is extinct, and the nerves and muscles 

 have degenerated, the restitution of the spinal marrow to a state of 

 health would be of no benefit to the palsy. 



Although we scarcely ever are able to fulfil the causal indications, 

 or the indications from the disease, yet a treatment of the symptoms 

 of the disease has been followed by comparative success. As long as 

 any of the muscles maintain the slightest trace of their contractility, 

 the systematic and active application of the induced current is indicated 

 as being the best and surest means of preserving and increasing what 

 remains of the irritability, and of arresting the atrophy and degenera- 

 tion of the muscles. It is proved, moreover, by the results which 

 Seine has obtained at his institution, that, even in cases apparently of 

 the most desperate nature, the lot of the unfortunate patient may be 

 materially alleviated by means of tenotomy and other expedients of 

 rational orthopedic surgery. 



ADDITIONS TO THE REVISED EDITION OF 1880. 



SECTION III. DISEASES OP THE PERIPHERAL NERVES. 

 1. P. 331. 



Neuralgia is occasionally so obstinate that, besides exhausting 

 the patient, it exhausts the physician's list of remedies ; and it may 

 not be out of place to record some of the numerous modes of treat- 

 ment recommended. 



Apply ice to the seat of pain as long as the patient can bear it, 

 while he holds brandy in the mouth. 



In periodic cases, where quinine fails, try salicylic acid in 30- 

 gr. doses repeated two or three times ; or hypodermic injections of 

 Fowler's solution arsenic in, v-x, with the same quantity of dis- 

 tilled water. 



Granules of T ^ gr. of aconitia, repeated three times daily till 

 they cause tingling, are said to give relief ; not to be used in cases 

 of heart disease. 



Inhalations of ether, of chloroform, or of nitrite of amyl (gtt. iij); 

 if the latter is not effectual, it may be repeated in fifteen minutes 

 and increased to six or eight drops ; it is more apt to give relief in 

 cases where the face is pale. 



