Pain and the Weather . 
527 
1879O 
III. PAIN AND THE WEATHER. 
f N his Paper on the “ Relation of Neuralgic Pain to 
Storms and the Earth’s Magnetism,” read before the 
National Academy of Sciences, Prof. S. Weir Mitchell 
reported the following observations : — 
Capt. Catlin, U.S. Army, lost a leg during the war, and 
since that time has suffered from traumatic neuralgia, 
sometimes in the heel, but more frequently in the toes, of 
the foot. He has carefully noted the effects produced on 
himself by changes of the weather. Dr. Mitchell’s own 
studies in this case, as he says, “ would never have proved 
successful had it not been for the unusual ability, interest 
in the task, and perseverance of the accomplished gentle- 
man who has obliged me by making his own torments 
useful in the solution of the question of how far weather 
effects the production of certain kinds of pain.” The 
hourly observations cover a period of five years. For the 
first quarters of these five years there were 2471 hours of 
pain ; for the second quarters, 2102 hours ; for the third 
quarters, 2056 hours ; and for the last quarters, 2221 hours. 
The best yield of pain is in January, February, and March, 
and the poorest in the third quarters — July, August, and 
September. During these five years, while the sun was 
south of the equator, there were 4692 hours of pain, against 
4158 hours while it was north of the equator ; and the 
greatest amount of pain was in the quarters beginning with 
the winter solstice, and the least was in those beginning 
with the summer solstice. The average duration of the 
attacks for the first quarters was 22 hours, and for the third 
quarters only 17*9 hours. 
By taking the four years ending January 1, 1879, it is 
found that of the 537 storms charted by the Signal Bureau, 
298 belong to the two winter quarters, against 239 for the 
summer quarters. Hence we have the ratio of the number 
of storms of the winter quarters and summer quarters cor- 
responding to the ratio of the amounts of neuralgia for 
these respective periods, and the ratio of average duration 
of each attack for the same time corresponds closely with 
the ratio of the respective total amounts of neuralgia for 
the same periods. The average distance of the storm centre 
at the beginning of the neuralgia attacks was 680 miles. 
Storms coming from the Pacific Coast are felt farthest off, 
“ very soon after, or as they are crossing the Rocky Moun- 
tains,” while storms along the Atlantic Coast are associated 
