After the stricture and soreness of the lungs are removed, and the general febrile action is suppressed, it is desirable to give a general tonic treatment.
CEPHALAGIA. (Headache.)
1. "Nervous headache." Take the B D current—moderate force. Place P. P. on back of neck, just below the brain, and manipulate with side-sponge cup, N. P., all the way down the spine and over the back.
It may often be necessary to apply the P. P. directly to the suffering part of the head. In that case, take the soft Faradaic current B C. If the fluid in the battery cell be fresh, use very little—just enough to reach well the platina plate and make the machine run. Wet the hair thoroughly through to the scalp, where the electrode is to be applied. Seat the patient on N. P., or let him hold it in both his hands, (the former is the better way), and treat lightly over the affected parts of the head with P. P. Treat five to ten minutes, as may be required, and if the pain returns, repeat the treatment. Only a very light current can be safely applied directly to the brain, and that an induced Faradaic current.
2. Sick Headache. The procuring cause of this distressing disease is involved in considerable mystery. It seems, however, to be largely dependent on the secretion and discharge into the duodenum of an improper quantity of bile, and an irregularity in the peristaltic action of the upper part of the bowels, particularly of the duodenum, in which that action more or less is reversed, and thereby throws the biliary fluid up, through the pylorus, into the stomach. After a time, the stomach becomes nauseated by its accumulation; and the head, through nervous sympathy, is rendered electrically positive in excess, and thus is made to ache. Yet there are certain characteristics of the disease which this view does not satisfactorily explain, and which must remain unexplained until advancing science shall reveal to us more perfect light.
When this disease has become habitual and periodic, it is very obstinate, and requires persistent treatment—often for several months.
Take the B D current, with moderate force. Place the N. P. on the spine, immediately above the kidneys, and treat with P. P. over the stomach and the duodenum, (lying transversely just below the stomach), three to five minutes. Treat in this manner about twice a week.
It may sometimes be necessary to treat the head directly. If so, after the treatment above prescribed, add that prescribed for the head directly, in nervous headache, with this difference, viz: instead of seating the patient on the N. P., or placing the same in his hands, pass it over the stomach and duodenum, unless the former may be already too positive. In that case, let the N. P. be at the seat.
DEAFNESS.
The prognosis is very uncertain. This infirmity is often cured by our system, even when of long standing; and often, again, the treatment fails. The uncertainty arises from the difficulty in determining the exact pathological derangement.