On the seat of headache in the sympathetic nerve, and on some of the rules of treatment, drawn from its connexion with chronic ill health / William Seller, M.D.

Seller, William.

Date:: 1848

Credit: On the seat of headache in the sympathetic nerve, and on some of the rules of treatment, drawn from its connexion with chronic ill health / William Seller, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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$tendency to any one of these states, may exist without the actual presence of a distinct disease, tlms constituting what is conveniently termed clu'onic ill health. With various diseases chronic ill health combines so as to render the ordinary means of cure unavailing. Symptomatic headache, however, is not so much a disease united with chronic ill health, as a usual part of certain kinds of chronic ill health. Chronic ill health is a more or less perverted state of the vegeta- tive or assimilative functions, usually consequent on errors of diet and regimen, or on privations and subjection to unfavom'able influ- ences arising out of forced occupations. Mere common excesses are not the only errors of diet and regimen, it often happening in modern civilized life, that the habits adopted expressly for the preservation of health become the means by which ill health is perpetuated. It may be observed, that a valetudinarian cast of the constitution being- suspected, often on slight grounds, and numerous peculiarities being imagined to exist, the sufferer immediately begins to adopt habits deemed corrective of these, in which he is very prone to de\aate far fi'om the standard of healthful regimen. Rules for the supposed preservation of health are seldom safe, when leading to usages much different from the practice of those who keep then- health mthout rules. Between excess and deficiency in the amount of aliment there is but a small interval; and there can be no doubt, that while excess was the prevaihng fault in former times, and still is with too many, there are not a few instances met with now in which an under quantity of aliment is taken to the prejudice of the health. The habitual dyspeptic is very apt to sacrifice his general health to the fear of disquieting his stomach, forgetting that dyspepsia can never be cured so long as the stomach participates in a general defect of nutrition throughout the system. Nor must it be forgotten how often a person may indulge in luxurious li^ang without thereby obtaining adequate nourishment. The fitness of the blood and of the several organs of the vege- tative functions to perform efficiently their respective offices, depends on the completeness of the process of nutrition in each. -But that process cannot be otherwise than imperfect in chronic ill health. In a chronic state of ill health, then, whether headache or any other source of suffering be the immediate object of attention, the first consideration is, by what means a commencement of improvement may be made, so that, by the gradual application of those, the sanative powers of the constitution may be brought at last to operate without embarrassment. For it is a mistake to suppose, that the physician has any greater direct power over the cure of disease than the sui'geon has over the healing of wounds. The leading principle for the treatment of chronic ill health, and for the permanent removal of the uneasy sensations attendant on it, is the exact adjustment of the food, drink, air, and warmth, to the present necessities of the system. Chronic ill health may be connected with the plethoric state, in$