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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    nervous system. A lady patient of mine, of neurotic inlierit- ance and temperament, was liable to terrible attacks of itch- ing on a limited region of the arm; which attacks followed quickly, almost instantly, after nervous disturbance, and were not accompanied by the appearance of prurigo. Abnormalities of the Secretions.—In nervous exhaustion, the eyes may become moistened more readily than in health, and under a very slight emotion of pleasure or of pain. The flood-gates seem, as it were, to stand ajar, and on tritling agi- tation, the tears flow forth. In grave cerebral disease, this luptom is common enough, but in functional disease—sim- j)le nervous exhaustion—it is even more common. In nervous debility, also, the sebaceous glands may refuse to do their duty; the hair and beard become dry and stiff, and much pomade is needed. The hair then falls off or becomes grey in patches. Dryness of the skin in this state is a sjmip- toni familiar to all, likewise Is excessive and morbid per- spiration in the axilla, or in the hands or feet, or other parts of the body. Clamminess of the hands is, in young men, almost diagnostic of sexual exhaustion. In this state, also, there may be a suppression of the spermatic secretion—so that de- sk e and power are wanting; with the improvement in nervous vigor, the secretion reappears. Likewise frequent and obsti- nate constipation of the nervously exhausted is oftentimes a result of suppressed intestinal secretion. Tenderness of the Teeth and Attacks of tenderness of all the teeth, acconqianied by a whitish appearance of the gums, I have noticed in nervous exhaustion. In these at- tacks, which may result from oyer-work or excess, all the teeth may be very tender on pressure, although none of them arc decayed. Il^ere, then, is another opportunity to studv witli the naked eye the pathology of spinal irritation. In nmwous exhaustion, whether complicated with amemia. or not there may be tenden.ess of any part of the body or of the whole bodv Jendernessot the bead is cerebral irritation; of tlic snine Bpma irritation; of tlic tip of tlie spine, coccodynia,'of the bieast, irritable mamimc; of the ovaries, irritable ovaries; of the teeth, lierc .lescrilied, dental irritation; of the womli iitoiine irritation; ot the stomach, nervous dcsiiciiffa- of the hcrt, table heart; of the eyes’, neurasthotii
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