MEGRIM, OR SICK-HEADACHE. 



405 



A certain amount of nausea is a pretty constant feature of megrim. In some 

 cases it is slight, in others it attains a high degree of intensity, and is followed by 

 vomiting. From the onset of the attack there is a total loss of appetite ; an aversion 

 to every flavour, even to those which are at other times the most grateful. When 

 actual vomiting occurs it sometimes terminates the seizure. 



We have already referred to the fact that an attack of megrim is usually 

 accompanied by some affection of the senses. One of the commonest of these is 

 disorder of the sight, and often enough it is the first of the symptoms to make its 

 appearance. Not uncommonly there is partial loss of sight The patient to whom 

 we have so frequently had occasion to refer suffers from this in a marked degree. 



Fig. 8. SPECTRAL APPEARANCES IN MEGRIM. 



She describes it as being like a round curtain in front of her, so that she can see 

 round it only at the sides. Many people liken it to the spot you see after having 

 looked at the sun. 



In many instances the blindness or partial blindness is accompanied by certain 

 spectral appearances. These are developed in different degrees in different indi- 

 viduals ; in some they are faint and attract but little attention, in others they are so 

 highly pronounced and sharply denned as to make a most powerful impression on 

 the mind. In their simplest form they consist of a luminous border surrounding the 

 black spot more or less completely, and expanding and widening as it expands. In 

 almost every case this luminous border presents an appearance of rapid motion or 

 oscillation ; sometimes it seems to be " glimmering," or " all alive," and some people 

 describe " coruscations," and "showers of sparks." The luminous arc depicted 

 around the blank space is coloured with some individuals, but colourless with others. 



