Pain may have its seat along the course of any nerve. It receives different names corresponding to the seat of pain. Thus we hear of facial neuralgia, inter-costal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, sciatica, or neuralgia of the sciatic nerve, gastralgia, or neuralgia of the stomach, etc., etc.

The pain of neuralgia varies in different cases and at different times from a slight dull ache to the most excruciating torture. The nerve which is the seat of pain, in many instances at least, is in a state of inflammation. It is usually tender, as shown by examination, at points where pressure can be made upon the nerve, and following an attack there is usually a certain soreness and tenderness over the seat of the pain.

Treatment

It is impossible in this article to give the space which the subject demands. The treatment embraces a large number of remedies and many methods of procedure. That which has effected a permanent cure in one case may have no effect in another. In some cases the pain is so persistent as to tax the physician to the utmost, who finds a remedy after having almost exhausted the pharmacopoeia.

Some form of opium will always afford temporary relief if taken in sufficient doses, and it is one of the most valuable curative remedies in many cases The patient is apt to be in poor flesh. In such a case, if a permanent cure is to be anticipated, the general health must be improved, and the body weight greatly increased. A method has, of late years, been very successfully employed in sanitariums, where the patient is required to take the necessary amount of rest in bed, to take a large amount of the most nourishing food, at intervals of only a few hours, and accompanied with baths, massage and suitable tonic treatment. By this means the body weight is greatly increased, the general health built up, and this is almost always followed by entire and permanent relief from pain.