Certain symptoms of nervous exhaustion / by George M. Beard.

  • George Miller Beard
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Certain symptoms of nervous exhaustion / by George M. Beard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of tliis state, wliicli, in some instances, is liereditarv, and rnns in families.* Fear of Society is a phase of morbid fear that is common enough in all forms of nervous exhaustion, hut is, perhaps, most often noticed in sexual complications. AVitli fear, blushing of a senseless but overpowering character is often combined; the victims are ashamed to enter the presence of ladies—to enter the presence of any one; they cannot look any one in the face, but in conversation keep their eyes turned down or aside. Sick Headache and Various Forms of Head Pain.—Sick headache is both a symptom and a safety-valve. If one must be nervous, an occasional attack of sick headache, if it be not too severe, is an excellent way for this nervousness to manifest itself, and, no doubt, saves other and worse affections. When sick headaches suddenly and permanently leave us, there may be reason to beware, though not probably in all cases. Some years ago, I had under my care, for a short time, a case of shak- ing palsy that had followed a sudden and apparently causeless cessation of sick headache. When sick headache leaves us, as a result of improvement of the nervous system through treatment or hygiene, it is so far forth a good sign. Like most of the symptoms of nervous exhaustion I am here describing, sick headache is experienced mostly between the ages of fifty and fifteefi. Karely, or never, do young children have it, and it usually stops before old age. It is a symptom that belongs to the perturbable and active years, and may quickly show itself when, from any cause, the nervous sys- tem is depleted of its force. Fain and Heaviness in the back of the head and over the vertex and through the whole head, very commonly attend the neurasthenic state—especially when the Itraiii is con- gested ; but many also appear where there is no evidence of au excess of blood on the brain. Lightness of the head is also a common complaint; also a .symptom usually defined as “ I oaimot tell how I feel.” Here 1 may remark that very much has been .said,* is now said, and for a long time i)robably will continue to be said *i)card & Rockwell’s Medical and Surgical Elcctrictfy, 2tl ed., p. 456.
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