A practical treatise on nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) : its symptoms, nature, sequences, treatment / by George M. Beard ; edited, with notes and additions, by A.D. Rockwell.

  • George Miller Beard
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical treatise on nervous exhaustion (neurasthenia) : its symptoms, nature, sequences, treatment / by George M. Beard ; edited, with notes and additions, by A.D. Rockwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    mograph is an aid in determining the amount of exhaustion; and by comparisons of tracings taken at intervals, the progress of the patient towards recovery can be estimated. A fictitious gain can be recognized, as distinguished from a real gain; no gain being per- manent unless the tension of the arteries is perma- nently restored. A patient's future prospects of health can be calculated with more certainty by an occasional use of the sphygmograph. It is sufficient to take a tracing once in two or four weeks.] Local Spasms of Muscles {Tremors).—What are called fibrillary contractions, and which sometimes occur in progressive muscular atrophy, are also noticed in the various shades of nervous exhaustion. An in- dividual muscle or part of a muscle may twitch occas- ionally or frequently, so as to cause considerable an- noyance, and, in some cases, unnecessary anxiety. As these vibrations occur in the orbicularis, and other muscles of the face, these spasms are very familiar; they come and leave without warning, and suddenly, lasting all the way from a few minutes to hours, or even days. They are not very bad, sometimes, nor especially troublesome, except when they become chronic, and the twitching extends to other muscles of the face. This result is exceptional; and so far as I have observed, chronic facial spasm does not occur in those who have nervous exhaustion. I was once conversing on nervous diseases with a well-known physician, when, all at once, the orbicularis of one of his eyes begau to twitch vigorously; he said it was the first time in his life that he had experienced any- thing of the kind; he regarded the use of tobacco as the probable cause. The stomach, in nervous dyspepsia, may be the seat of similar spasms, which may follow any excitement
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