elieve the feeling of pressure and dull discomfort about the
rectum and perineum, and it has been successful when galvanism did no
good. In patients within reach of a static machine, this form may be
used for the numbness if the others do not help it.
For the attacks of pain, if general, a prolonged hot bath lasting from
ten to twelve minutes, at a temperature of 100 deg. F. or even more, should
be first tried; if this fail, antipyrin, phenacetin, acetanilid, or
cannabis indica may be used, or, as a last resort, morphia. For the
local pains hot water is also useful, and in the intervals I order
applications of hot water to the tender points, as hot as can be borne,
alternating with ice-water, each rapidly applied three or four times. In
severe attacks, and with all due caution to avoid habituation, cocaine
injections may be given. In cases with high arterial tension the daily
administration of nitroglycerin in full doses will not only lower the
tension but decrease the pains in force and frequency.
For several years past in all patients with the general lowering of
nervous force and vitality so common in this disease I have habitually
used the testicular elixir of Brown-Sequard. The ridiculous length to
which organic therapeutics have been carried, the extravagant
advertising claims, and an absurd expectation of impossible results have
combined to make the profession shy of those organic preparations which
have not very good evidence in their favor, and for some time I shared
in this prejudice against the Brown-Sequard fluid. A talk with that most
distinguished physician and an examination of some of his cases led me
to a trial for myself, and I am at present very well convinced that,
whether a physiologic basis can reasonably be assumed or not, we have in
the fluid a tonic remedy of great power. While I have used it with good
effect in other conditions, it is in ataxia that I have found it of most
value.
The glycerin extract is freshly prepared from bulls' testicles in exact
accordance with the directions of the discoverer. It is used
hypodermatically every other day, beginning with a diluted ten-minim
dose and increasing by two or three drops up to about forty minims. The
effect is at its height twelve to twenty-four hours after the
administration in most patients, hence the reason for using it only once
in two days. The skin is prepared, the needles and syringe disinfected,
and the tiny puncture sealed afterward
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