Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.

these has beeii the mistaking it for an early sign of phthisis. What authors have described as " tabes-dorsalis " has most often been but this rachialgia, reacting upon the viscera, and vitally affecting nutrition, as it will, (in males as well as females.) But the most serious of all these errors is, the mistaking it for dis- ease of the spine — an error Dr. Briquet believes to be even more common than Sir Benjamin Brodie has represented it to be. III. Epigastralgia. — Hyperesthesia of the muscles of the epigastric region plays a far more important part than has been suspected. It frequently occurs, says Dr. Briquet, as it has been noted in three hundred and seventeen out of three hundred and fifty-eight hysterical subjects. In one hundred and thirty of these, there was no accompanying derangement of the digestive functions, while, in one hundred and eighty-seven, such disturb- ances did exist. In answer to the question, why there should be so constantly pain in parts which seem to have no relation to the moral emotions of the patient, it may be observed — (1.) Epi- gastralgia may be met with in the childhood of girls who are subject to ill treatment, (or who are constitutionally peculiarly sensitive to blame,) or who have an hereditary predisposition to hysteria; and in such it becomes associated with disorder of the digestive organs, and a disposition to migraine, (hemicrania.) (2.) In others, it appears either at the period of the establish- ment of the menses, or later, and during difficult menstruation. (3.) In a certain number of cases, it arises amid the disturb- ances produced by chlorosis. (4.) In a few instances, it arises during the actual evolution of the hysteria, without the aid of any special cause. Now, the above-named circumstances explain the origin of one half the cases of epigastralgia; and the other half is due to the two following orders of causes : — (5.) First, the disguised or manifested hysterical paroxysms. These are usually preceded and accompanied by a feeling of compression, distention, or even tearing, and distress in the epi- gastric region; and for twenty-four hours after the fit is over, the patient often complains greatly of epigastric pains. In propor- tion to the repetition of the paroxysms does the epigastralgia become established.