The Science of Therapeutics - Classical Homeopathy Online

Full text of "The Science of Therapeutics: According to the Principles of Homeopath...Page 382 of 653We do not advise the employment of external applications ; theygenerally weaken the patient still more. . The vaunted applicatioof strips of fly-blister is very seldom of any use; if it is, itprobably because its action is in homoeopathic rapjKjrt with thesymptoms. We may not often be obliged to send a patient afflictedwith this neuralgia to the springs; if this should be necessary,would recommend Teplitz and Sulphur springs.8. IVenralsIa InAercostalUkIntercostal Neuralgia.This species of neuralgia is still more frequent than ischias; itattacks principally females, and occurs very seldom before the agof pubescence, and subsequently to the critical age. The physicalc6nstitution does not seem to influence this affection; nor can itraced to definite causes. This affection succeeds very frequentlan attack of herpes zoster; it much less frequently precedes thisexanthem. The intercostal nerves of the left side, and more parJNeuralgia Intercostalis. 451ticularly the nerves between the sixth and eighth intercostal spaare most frequently attacked.As in ischias, so in intercostal neuralgia, the pain is very seldfelt all at once in all its intensity, but most commonly developsitself progressively ; it is generally located in one intercostalis at times tearing, at other times lancing or jerking, and alwaymingled with a burning sensation ; every more violent movementof the thorax excites or aggravates the pain. A characteristicpeculiarity in this affection is that three spots are uncommonlysensitive to contact; namely one spot close to the vertebral coluin the middle of the intercostal space, one half way between thesternum and vertebral column, and a third spot towards the front,close to the sternum or mesian line of the abdomen. These pointsare very seldom missing; they are well known to the patients, andthe extreme sensitiveness of these points, which is very much increased by the least attempt at percussion, easily suggests thepresence of inflammation. This suspicion is set at rest by thecircumstance that hard pressure is generally borne without troublThe affection is unaccompanied by fever, its course is mostly chrand may last for years. The more gradually the pain arises, themore obstinate it is as a rule. The paroxysms of syncope, palpitation of the heart, dyspnoea and the like, which are often causedby the intensity of the pain, are very apt to mislead one in thediagnosis.In treating this affection we shall find it difficult to hit uponremedy, if we depend upon the symptoms in tbp Materia Medica.In selecting a remedy, we may lay great stress upon the circumstance that the pain is semi-lateral and likewise that the kind opain, the time of its appearance and other features, are characteistic indications. The favorable results which have so far beenhttp://www.archive.org/stream/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog/sciencetherapeu00kafkgoog_djvu.txt