This disease is met with in hysterical women and hypochondriacal men, It is also a symptom in chorea, epilepsy, and certain other convulsions. It is sometimes associated with the lodgment of foreign substances in the passage. We find it in those of nervous temperamentthose of the neurotic temperament. To prove that there is no stricture, all that is necessary is to pass an ordinary esophageal bougie. If it passes readily into the stomach, this is positive proof that there is no obstruction, and that the apparent obstruction is simply of a nervous character.

Treatment

The treatment must be the correcting of the general condition of the patient. Whatever these symptoms depend upon must be corrected. In chorea the patient should be put to bed until all symptoms have disappeared, and then the eating should be very light for the first week. In cases of epilepsy the basic derangement must be treated. It may be due to decomposition of food in the gastro-intestinal canal. Many times there will be colitis, accompanied by distressing constipation. These symptoms must be overcome before any relief will be experienced to the disagreeable sensations in the esophagus.