102 ANALYTIC SECT. XI. 
called its paralytic stage, and frequently it ads 
vances no further, 
. CCXxxIx. Sometimes, however, in the course of 
a few weeks or months, neuralgia passes into the 
second or inflammatory stage. The pain which was 
obtuse in the paralytic, becomes excessively acute 
in the second stage; the muscles continue wasting, 
and are extremely sensible to the touch ; but they 
bear pressure when it is applied peicrally anes a 
bandage. | 
ccxL. The disease is now subject to cotta 
exacerbations, which commence in the evening, 
and last six or seven hours; during which, the 
" patient frequently utters loud. and doleful sereams; 
and when he drops asleep, exhausted with agony, 
it is only to awake to renewed misery ; the con- 
stant gnawing-pains, like the vultures of Tityus, 
permit him no. interval.of waking tranquillity. 
In this aggrayated state of neuralgia, the patient 
is reduced to the last. degree of emaciation; but 
the diseased thigh is sometimes an inch and a half 
smaller than the other. Sometimes it is;attended 
with ansarca about the ankle. 
ccxi. In the first. stage of neuralgia, the vital 
force is simply diminished by the influence of 
cold on the sciatic nerve. 
ccxLu. But every variation of the vital force has 
repeatedly been proved to cause a corresponding 
variation in the expansibility of all the soft fibrous 


