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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    itative-manner to get the best of claret and drink it freely. The chance shot, sent in the dark and without aim, struck the very centre of the hull’s eye; the lady bought the best of claret, drank it with astonishing freedom, and found tliat it did for her what the best exiiert sldll of our city had failed to do. Cotfee often acts badly with these cases. The otlier day a young man, who consulted me for sexual exhaustion with nervous dyspepsia, told me if he drank a single cup of colfee in the morning he was unable to attend to his business with comfort, and conld not calculate or write correctly. Incidentally, I will remark that the development of idiosyn- crasies, through nervous sensitiveness, accpiired or inherited, is the real philosophy of hay fever—a malady which, as I have shown in my work on that subject, has increased as culture and civilization have increased, and winch is found usually in those who have had some other nervous symptoms. As an effect of this inherited or acquired nervo-sensitiveness, there appears in one person an idiosyncrasy against bright sun-light, so that exposure to it brings on the spnptoms of hay fever; in another, a similar idiosyneras}- as to dust—the most common of all the excitants of this disease; in an- other, against fresh hay; in another, against ipecac or other drugs; in another, against old hay; in another, against the odor of roses, or other flowers; in another, against the pol- len of corn, or of some of the grasses, or of certain weeds or Roman wormwood, or golden rod; in another, against some one of the common fruits—as gr^apes, apples, pears or peaches, or strawberries, or raspberries, or watermelons; and so on infinitely—new developments appearing every year. On this theory, I based the nerve treatment of hay fever, and predicted that by means of electricity, strychnine, arsenic and other sedative and tonic remedies, we should be able to greatly relieve and break u}-) this distressing disorder, l^ast year tliis prediction was fulfilled not only in my own practice, but also in that of other physicians.* Another idiosyncrasy devcloi)cd by iiervous exhaustion is sensitiveness to cold or hot neater. A patient of mine could never bear to even dip his hands in hot water, so disagreea- *Hay fever regularly decreases as we go South. In the Gulf States it is com- prratively rare, although it is found here and there in every State. In this re- spect also, it follows the analogy of other nervous diseases to which it is allied.
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