ir are chiefly affected then we get the classic throbbing temples.
Practically all of these aches, however, are of the "fire-alarm"
character; and while certain of these nerve-gongs show some tendency to
respond more readily to calls coming in from certain regions of the
body, as, for instance, the forehead nerves to eye-strain, the
back-of-the-head nerves (occipital) to grave toxic states of the system,
the tips of any of the nerves in the crown of the head to pelvic
disturbances and anaemic conditions, the lateral branches in the temples
to diseases of the teeth and throat, yet there is little fixed
uniformity in these relations. Eye-strain, for instance, may cause
either frontal or occipital headache; and, as every one knows from
experience, the pain may be felt in all parts of the head at once.

Gentle and intelligent massage over the course of these nerves of the
scalp, according to the location of the pain, will often do much to
relieve the severity of the suffering.

Treat headache as a danger signal, by rest and the removal of its cause,
and it will prevent at least ten times as much suffering and disability
as it causes.

CHAPTER XVIII

NERVES AND NERVOUSNESS

Nerves are real things. In spite of their connection with imaginary
diseases and mental disturbances, there is nothing imaginary or
unsubstantial about them. There is no more genuine and obstinate malady
on earth than a nervous disease. Because nerves lie in that twilight
borderland between mind and matter, body and soul, the real and the
ideal, the impression has got abroad that they are little better than
figures of speech. Though their disturbances give rise to visions of all
sorts there is nothing visionary about them; they are just as genuine
and substantial a part of our bodily structure as our bones, muscles,
and blood-vessels. In fact, it was this very substantiality that at the
beginning prevented their proper recognition, and handicapped them with
their present absurd and inappropriate name.

"Nerve" is from the Greek _neuron_, meaning tendon, or sinew, and was
originally applied indiscriminately to all the different shining cords
which run down the limbs and among the muscles. In fact the first
recognition of nerves was an utter failure to recognize. The tendon
cords, which are the ropes with which the muscles work the joint
pulleys, were actually included under one head with the less numerous
but almost equally large and tough c