Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-07-11
NOVEL CURE FOR NEURALGIA
A Tennessee Physicians Expert
ences with Ether spray.

DR.. j. 7. McColgan in the Southern Practi.
TONER.
In the spring of 1869 we had the
most severe attacks of facial neuralgia
which it has been our lot to witness
In more than eighteen years Of prac-
tice; for two weeks we had to con6ne
ourself to a darkened chamber, and
the lightest football on the floor caused
us the most excruciatiDg agony. All
the remedies, local, general, regular
and irregular, were tried without any
abatement of the trouble. One side
of our face was terribly swollen, SO
much so that it was impossible to
extract decayed molar, to which we
charged all our suffering, and it
seemed as if we were destined to
shuttle off this mortal coil by exhaus
ton tom pain and want of sleep.
We finally concluded to incise
the swollen jaw. thinking there
was an abscess about the root of the
decayed tooth, and as the parts were
80 extremely sensitive, and, moreover,
having vague dread of chlorofoI
We thought we would try local an@s
thesia by evaporatlng ether on the
surface until the part was frozen.
Our attendant complied with our in
struction, and the spray was turned
on. The first sensation was one of
cutting pain, gradually subsiding, I'm
til when congelatiOn took place we
felt perfectly easy, and ordered the
cutting operation deferred. Then for
fifteen hours we slept the sleep of the
righteous, and when We awoke found
the rubor, ct tumor, Galore, cum do.
lore entirely vanished, and we arose
and went about our business,
and to this good day, although
we carry a perfect cabinet Of
carious teeth in our mouth, have never
had a neuralgia twinge OF touch of
that hell O. a disease" toothache.
Well, to be honest about it, we did
not at the time give the freezing pro-
cess any credit for the cure, we thought
the attack had spent its force and was
going to get well anyway, and we paid
but little attention to the matter for a
year or more, when relative, Captain
Harris, was visiting us, and took a
spell OF neuralgia, of which he had for
a year been periodically afflicted with,
rarely passing a month without an
attack. To give him present ease, for
we did not think OF any permanent
benefit, we tried the spray all along
the track of the affected nerve until
it turned the skin white; the relief
was immediate, and he has since in
formed me permanent.
Since then we ave used it in fifteen
or twenty cases with uniform success,
never having to make more than two
applications, and it came to be stock
remedy. and we thought that in all
| probability was so with most physi
clans, for we remember that when
Richardson first introduced it like
all new things in medicine). it W s
Wanted for everything, and would
probably have still thought so, it a
gentleman had not called on us some
time ago to know if we hadn't new
treatment for neuralgia, and stated a
couple of years ago he was on steam
boat and was suffering with that
disease, when Captain Harris in
formed him that he was cured by some
sort of freezing process, and I'D
vised him to try it. When the boat
reached Louisville he called on two
or three dentists, and three of the
most distinguished surgeons of the
city, and they told him they knew of
no such a remedy for neuralgia, and
advised him not to have anything of
the kind done. On hearing his
story, VIC looked over our old volumes
of medical journals and found not a
single allusion to local anasthesia as a
remedy for neuralgia
Now we must confess that all this
sounds very much like the story of the
sUperanuated clergyman who acci.
dentally,. while in the West Indies,
discovered a cure for consumption,
etc., only we don't want any one to
, send a stamp for PARTICULARS. Any
physician can purchase hand ball
atomizer for one and half dollars
and try it for themselves. They may
use either rhigolene or ether, and it
will only be necessary to let the spray
play upon the part until the skin
turns white. We promised to offer no
theory for its action, but we will ven.
ture this opinion: that the intense
cold, by its revulsive effect, causes
complete change in the nutrition OF
the nerve; what this change is, we will
not at present venture to assert, only
hoping that others who have better
opportunities will give the matter
trial and fully test It's merits.