Sympathetic pains : their nature and diagnostic value / by T.K. Monro.
- Thomas Kirkpatrick Monro
- Date:
- [1898?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sympathetic pains : their nature and diagnostic value / by T.K. Monro. 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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![Reprinted from the Glasgorv Medical Journal for Juh/, 1S98.] SYMPATHETIC PAINS: THEIR NATURE AND DIAGNOSTIC VALUE.1 By T. K. MONRO, M.A., M.D., Examiner in the University of Glasgow and Assistant Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, c I VENTUKE to call your attention this evening to a series of phenomena of which it may be said that all are interesting, many of great importance in diagnosis, and some curious and even fantastic in their characters. Many that were at one time complete puzzles to the physician have in recent years been elucidated by clinical investigations and speculations, but a considerable number, particularly of the less common varieties,, still remain unexplained. For the understanding of these sympathetic pains, two principles must be borne in mind. The first of these is a familiar one—viz., that sensations induced by the irritation of a sensory nerve in any part of its course are referred to the peripheral distribution of that nerve (a law first pointed out by Descartes). For example, when a blow is received on the ulnar nerve behind the internal condyle, pain is felt in the ten-itory to which this nerve is distributed—in the inner part of the hand and inner fingers. It is true that pain is also felt at the seat of injury, but that is because the nervi nervorutti distributed to the sheath of the nerve trunk are irritated. This is perfectly consistent with the principle just enunciated, but the important point for us in the meantime is that painful stimulation of the long nerve fibres is referred by the sufierer to the distal distribution or origin of these fibres, no matter in what part of their course the stimulation be applied. Thus,, disease of the posterior nerve roots often causes pains in the legs, and a frequent mistake is to diagnose such pains as 1 Slightly altered from a paper read to the Southern Medical Society of Glasgow on 5th May, 1898. A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21467936_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
