Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-02
A CURE FOR NEURALGIA.
Tennessee Physicians Experien1
with Etller.Spray.

A Tennessee Physicians Experience
with Etller-Spray.
[Dr. J. T. McColgan, in the Southern Practitioner
In the spring of 1869 we had the most
severe attack of facial neuralgia which
it has been our lot to witness in more
than eighteen years of practice; for two
weeks we had to confne ourselves to q
darkened chamber, and the lightest foot
fall on the floor caused US the most ex-
cruciating agony. All the remedies,
local, general, regular and irregular,
were tried without any abatement Of the
trouble. One side of our face was terri
bly, swollen, so much so that it was i'm
possible 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 exhaustion
from 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 so extremely sensitive, and,
moreover, having vague dread Of chic
rotorm, we thought we would try local
an@sthesia by evaporating ether on the
surface until the part was frozen. Our at
tendant complied with our instructions,
and the spray was turned on. The first
sensation was one Of cutting pain,
gradually subsiding until when ccngela-
ton took place we felt perfectly easy,
and ordered the cutting operation de-
ferred. Then for fifteen hours we slept
the sleep Of the righteous, and when we
awoke found the rubor, ct tumor, colore.
cum dolore entirely vanished, and we
md al,
to this good day, although we carry a
perfect cabinet OF curious teeth in our
mouth, have never had q neuralgia
twinge or touch of that shell O. a.
disease a toothache. Well, to be
honest about it, We did not at the time
give the freezing process any credit for
the cure; we thought the attack had
about spent its force and was going to
act well anyway, and we paid but little
attention to the matter for a year or
more, when a relative, Capt. Harris, was
visiting us, and took spell Of neuralgia,
Of which he had for over 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 informed me, permanent.
Since then we have used it in fifteen
or twenty cases with uniform success.
never having to make more than two an
plicatiOns, and it came to be stock
remedy, and we thought that in all prob
ability it was so with most physicians.
for we remember that when Richardson
first introduced it Qike all new things in
medicine. it was Wanted for every
thing, and would probably have still
thought SO if gentleman hadn't called
on us some time ago to know if we hadn't
a new treatment for neuralgia, and stated
couple of years ago he was on steam
boat and was suffering with that dis
ease, when Capt. Harris informed him
that he was cured by some sort of
freezing process, and advised 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 remedy for neuralgia, and adj
vised him not to have anything of the
kind done. On hearing this story We
looked over our old volumes of medical
journals and found not single allusion
to local anasthesia as a remedy for neu-
ralgia.
Now we must confess that all this
sounds very much like the story of the
superannuated clergyman who accident
ally, while in the West Indies, discov-
cred cure for consumption. ETC., only
we don't want any one to send stamp
for particulars. Any physician can pur-
chase hand-ball atomizer for 81. so 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 viii venture the suggest
ion: That the intense cold, by its re-
vulsive 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 its merits.