The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-10-01
FEELING IN AMPUTATeO LIMBS

FEELING IN AMPUTATEO LIMBS.
An Explanation of the Funny Bone" and
Other Strange Sensations.
elbow often have we heard legless
or an armless man say, as he pointed
down to his stump, that he could feel
ago just as plainly as though it were
there now" said an anatomist recently.
''The man told you the truth in spite of
the seeming absurdity of the claim. 1t
arises in this way: If that part of a
divided nerve which is still connected
with the brain be stimulated, the same
sensation is perceived as if the stimulus
We're applied to all parts in which the
branches of that nerve were distributed
before they were cut off Every body
has perfect illustration Of this strange
action in that funny bone sensation
which we all have felt when a particu-
lar stroke on our elbow is given. That
queer tingling pain which such blow
produces, and which appears to have its
seat in the inner forearm and hand and
IN the little and ring fingers, is owing
to the flaments of the ulnar nerve
(which passes behind the elbow being
distributed to those parts, and to the
sensation being always referred to the
outside termination of that filament, no
matter where it may be irritated.
''Now, it is, of course, impossible to
experiment upon a single nervous fila
ment. lest the accuracy with which the
imagined seat of sensation produced By
irritating bundle of filaments accords
with their distribution leaves no doubt
of the accuracy of the following odd
truths: The nearer to the brain that
the stimulous of irritation is applied the
more extended is the bodily sensa ton:
pain is often felt in all the parts sup
piled with nerves coming off from the
cord below the diseased portion, and
the pain of dividing a nerve is felt over
all the parts of which its branches are
distributed. This is the circumstance
which gave rise to all the apparently
queer ideas which our friends who have
lost limb entertain as to their still
possessing it. Often so strong is this
delusion that they will insist on seeing
or touching the vacant space be-
fore being satisfied that it is mere
fancy of their own. For example. the
constant cry of a patient who has just
had his leg cut off and while the doctors
are dressing the stump above the knee:
Stop squeezing my knee" You hurt
my toesr and the like.
''The reason is that when those fla
ments of his nerves in his stump which
are destined for the knee or the foot be-
low are touched in dressing the ampu-
tation, the knee itself or the foot is APP
parently severely handled to the mind
of the patient, and he suffers in that
firm sensation. So deceptive are these
sensations that years and years after
the loss of limb, and even for the rest
of their lives, men occasionally endeavor
to perform some act with the stump
which they were accustomed TO do with
that part of their body which they
lost We don't have to lose an arm or
a leg to know something of this
odd delusion, for we all have felt the
singing sensation Of a foot being
asleep when the ischiatic nerve has
been pressed upon, and much of that
peculiar pain called tic doloureux is due
to the trunk of some nerve being dis
eased, and the pain is referred to all
the parts to which its filanents are dis
tributed.
"All men and animals that are well
fed and sheltered have the same per-
f. =: b n, $tox,
and the nervous force is merely correl-
alive with the forces engaged in the
nutrition of the body. We find light
and heat necessary to the production OF
those materials from which the nerv-
Gus system is formed. These are cor
relative with the chemical forces
brought into action in forming the COM
starch and protein. When we do cot
properly assimilatc our food and from
the effects of sudden shocks, then we
pass into that condition known as nerT-
Gus prostration, and the prostration is
complete, indeed; then we have sundry
morbid conditions known as hyd-opho-
bia, tetanu., epilepsy and hysteria,
which seem TO be utterly beyond the
power OF men having the strongest wills
10 overcome or suppress
While, therefore, we know all about
the nerves, delicate and com pick rs the
machinery is, yet It is equally true that
we do not know anything yet OF the
will that animate. them We can not
get hold of il to analyZe it, and the
more we attempt 20 define it, to locate
il, the more insignificant 70 Us the sum
of all our understanding Of ourselves
Was hington Star.