Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Diseases of women / by Alfred Lewis Galabin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![chloride of mercury (gr. iv. ad 5]*.) is also a remedy of repute. Infusions of tobacco may be used both as a vaginal douche and for external application. Any con- stitutional disorder must be treated, saline laxatives being generally of use. Bromide of potassium in full doses is often valuable, and opiates, or chloral, must be given to secure sleep in severe cases. When the neu- rotic element is predominant, quinine or arsenic may be of service. Coccygodynia.—By coccygodynia ii meant pain in the situation of the coccyx. It is generally accom- panied by tenderness, and is greatly increased by any movement of the sacro-coccygeal joint, or the muscles attached to the coccyx. It is thus usually most acute on defecation, and on sitting down, or rising from the sitting posture. Sometimes pain is also felt on walking or while sitting. Coccygodynia is either a symptom of disease of the coccyx or of its articulation, or it may be, like pruritus vulvae, a neurosis depending on any source of irritation in the sexual organs, anus, or rectum. In the former case it is generally either the result of injury during parturition, or one received from without, as by horse exercise. In the form of a neurosis, the affection is not uncommon in single women. For diagnosis, the coccyx should be explored between one finger in the rectum and another ufed externally. The detection of actual inflammation of the coccyx itself or of its articulation respectively will be assisted by the degree of tenderness of the bone itself on pressure, or of the pain produced by moving it. When there is no history of any cause likely to have produced inflammation, careful search should be made for a source of reflex irritation. Treatment.—In the neurotic forni of the affection, the chief object is to cure the primary cause. Sub- cutaneous injections of morphia over the coccyx afford relief. When any local inflammation is diagnosed, leeches may be applied over the seat of pain, followed by repeated counter-irritation. In very obstinate cases](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21511603_0530.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
