Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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Hypcrccsthesia of the vagus, or pneumogastric nerve, espe- cially of its oesophageal and gastric branches, is, perhaps, the most common of all neuralgic affections; and this frequency ought not to create surprise, when we remember how directly all mental operations act upon these nerves through the central axis — how quickly poisons taken into the circulation react upon them — how intimate is the connection between the stomach and other viscera of the abdomen and pelvis — and how continu- ally the nerves of the stomach are exposed to the application of local irritants. When we know that a puncture or wound of a sensitive nerve in the hand or finger will excite irritation in those of the whole limb: that from these it will radiate upon the nerves of the opposite limb, and, extending its influence up- ward and downward, will at last involve the trunk, and even the lower extremities, we may reasonably infer, that some such train of phenomena may occur after local irritation of the nerves of the stomach ; and that the nerves of the heart and lungs, and the sensory twigs of the upper extremities, may become in- volved in the morbid condition, while with the extension of it upwards, hypochondriasis supervenes. Common as is this class of diseases, I know of none which demand more care to estab- lish a correct diagnosis. The most common forms of this hy- peresthesia are gastrodynia, pleurodynia, pyrosis, globus, and the " sympathetic affections cf the heart and brain," termed palpitation, headache, hypochondriasis, &c. In persons predis- posed or liable to spasmodic asthma, the pulmonary plexus will also be involved, and nervous coughs, asthma, &c, will result. These symptoms vary almost ad infinitum in their com- binations. I should advise you, medical students, to cultivate the habit of looking upon the nervous system as a whole; all the parts of which act and react upon each other. It may be true that every nerve in connection with the spinal cord consists of the five distinct nerves that some writers represent, viz., volitional, sensual, incident excitor, reflex motor, and the sympathetic; but it certainly is not proved. On the other hand, if you con- ceive all the nerves to be subject to the same general laws, but