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During the past fall, however, the general health of this patient
had run down, and the old hip affection had become the most
prominent symptom. She was again treated, but, I regret to
say, with not, as yet, so flattering success; but that she will
recover ultimately, and be restored to health, usefulness, and
happiness, I have not a doubt.
Headaches.
When tracing the cause of headaches, what do we learn
from anatomical considerations, as to the probable source of
pain within the cranium when a person is the subject of a
true and profound headache ? The source of distress, says
Dr. Symonds, does not appear to be in the nervous matter,
vesicular or tubular, either in that of the cerebral hemispheres
or of the cerebellum. No evidence of feeling has ever been
obtained by vivi-sectors, till they approach the sensory ganglia
— the thalami optici and the corpora quadrigemina. But these,
on the contrary, are the centres of sensation to all parts of the
body, as well as to the head. All analogy points to some cer-
tain nerves as the source or medium of the pain. Numerous
as are the nerves that come out of the cranium, there are to
ocular view but very few that go into it. A branch of the sub-
occipital accompanies the vertebral artery; but a large majority
of the other nerves, destined for intra-cranial purposes, are
derived from the sympathetic. These, then, we may feel satis-
fied, are the nerves which are of the chiefest interest to our
present inquiry. Nerves of this class, we know, accompany
blood vessels ; and when we observe the large amount of these
vessels, — as the brain and its membranes are more liberally
supplied with blood than any other organ, the quantity being
computed as one fifth of the blood of the whole body, — we
might here, without searching farther, realize the enormous
amount of minute network of ganglionic nerves. By the
microscopic examinations of modern anatomists, in fact, they
are traced in the greatest abundance.
There is also found a vast interlacement of nerves at the