Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-09-06
FREAKS OF NATURE.
Why Ice Cream Makes Your Temple Ache
Cramps and stitches.


Cramps and stitches.
Why is it that upon taking an inpru-
IDENTITY large mouthful of ice cream one
is apt to feel sensation of violent pain
in the temple?
Such little physical phenomena as this
are experienced by every one and seem
very puzzling, but how many persons
ever think of inquiring as to what they
sign fly?
AS for the ice cream, when such big
mouthful Of tits incautiously swallowed
nerves of the larynx, or voice box"
and of the pharynx, in the throat. The
sensation shoots back to the center of
those nerves in the brain; but there it
finds side connection with the great
facial nerve that starts from in front of
the ear and extends its branches over
the side of the face. One branch of this
facial nerve, extending across the tenn
pie, is nerve of sensation, while the
other branches are nerves of motion,
governing chiefly the play of the mouth.
The pain from the chill is side tracked
along the nerve branch that traverses
the temple and the feeling is likely to
be quite agonizing in that locality for a
moment or so, very likely involv ng the
eyeball alphabetically. This feeling
of sensation in one nerve when an
other nerve is attacked is what is called
''refex action"
Doubtless you have on occasions
walked up in the night with a fearful
pain in the calf of your leg and found
the muscles drawn up in knot This
"cramp," as it is called" is simply a
contraction of the muscles caused by
cold or fat que. Irritation of any sort,
however, may bring it on by an electric
current, for instance, which will render
the subject experimental upon incapa-
BILE of extending the limb affected A
''stitch in the side" is the same sort of
a cramp attacking other muscles; a
''crick in the neck" is contraction of
the muscles of the neck owing to cold
A slight wrench of the neck will
oICenU1mes produce most a5ou 'AtnLs
sensation of burning, one or more of the
many lgaments that fasten the head
| securely in position having been
| strained for moment. Every one has
felt the pain in the side that comes
from running distance; it is simply a
spasm of the muscles of the diaphragm,
from violent and unaccustomed exer-
else.
People are often unnecessarily
alarmed by specks floating before their
vision, imagining that blindness threat
ems. In most cases these are caused
by nothing worse than a little in
digestion or cold. A slight en-
largement of the blood vessels in the
cornea that covers the front of the eve
like watch glass or in the mucous
membrane stretched over the cornea
will produce the symptoms. But specks
seen in this way may sometimes be par
ticles OF blood or other foreign sub
stances floating in the liquid of the eye
in which case disease may be indi-
Gated. When the specks are very NOV
able it is presumably trifing conges-
ton of the superficial membrane.
Whisky in mild excess is likely to serve
as occasion for the phenomenon.
Why is the roof of your mouth so
sensitive that few rubs of your tongue
Will render 1T unpleasantly sore?
Simply for the reason that beneath
the mucous membrane covering that
part are ever so many acute nervous
papill@ only covered by coating of
ep1thellal cells. A rub or two w tn your
tongue will scrape off these protecting
cells and leave the sensitive nerve ex-
tremities bare. Under such conditions
they are sore to the touch. 1t is at the
extremity of the tongue such nervous
papill@ are most highly developed.
They perform the function of the sense
called taste" and for it's purpose they
are distributed all over the inside of
the mouth, palate and upper throat.
Different viands produce upon these
papill@ var. ed effects of sensation, and
by comparison of such effects the agree
ableness of dishes served is estimated.
Washington Star.