The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-11-19


Nothing but a headache was the re-
ply.
The next one was a man. He looked
cross and anxious lie was at the tele-
phone and his replies TO the interrogatOries
evidently being sent over the wire were
delivered in a sharp, irritated tone that his
mild explanatory words did not seem to
Justify. At last his "good-by" was said,
the receiver hung up, the bell rung and he
turned away.
lord, how my head aches" he sighed.
Though addressed apparently TO higher
power The remark was overheard by me-
a few moments later | heard a similar
remark. II think l must go home and lie
70 down" said the friend / had invited to 90
for drive, my head is aching severely"
Now the tact that these three people
had headaches is not remarkable Most
Of us have headaches much of the time 1t
has almost come 10 be national vice with
US. The hea dache, / say, Is not remark.
able, but this fact is, namely. that | asked
each one OF these people the cause Of his
or her particular cranial pain, and re-
ceived the same reply-"Ob, it is merely
nervous"
"A nervous headache" is about as COM
prehenslve term as that other that some
years ago was so popular among GER
their own lack of knowledge of certain
=" class OF symptoms BY the wlse-sounding
phrase "typh oid-ma laria."
Strictly speaking all headaches are
nervous, in that they are produced by the
transmission to the brain, by the nerves
of news of trou BILE in different parts of the
body. These three nervous headaches
We're in different parts of the various
affected heads. One located itself In the
sufferers forehead. Another victim COM
LII, I'd - 81
third SAID her pain was lat the base OF the
= brain, the common term among the laity
for occipItal headache.
:: Headache, mysterious as it seems is
. usually very easily explained maady.
remember once, In my student days, be-
Ing placed In front of an out-patient and
told by my preceptor TO learn the cause of
the violent headache from which she was
suffering. Ihe chances for correct
. diagnosis were somewhat complicated by
The fact that the patient knew not word
OF English nor syllable of the Pollack
dialect that was her native language; but
: although l understood not word of what
she said there were certain unmistakabe
signs, the location OF the pain IN the fore
head and top of the head. The pink, mot
p: tied flush at the tip of the nose, the thin
jerky pulse and the aching feet pointed
:: to .eloqueDtlv, with shake Of the head,
= pointed Enthusiastically TO chronic dyspep-
s!a. with pelvic complications. Any tyro
could have diagnosed ii. Doubtless had
1.-THE out patient been an American of the
middle or upper class she would have
q. called hers nervous" headache.
There are several well-defined types of
=. headache. There Is the occlpita head
ache, the pain 'at the base of the BRAIN
referred to before. This is usually due TO
:: Venous fitness, or 1t may be the result of
:~Sltting too long with the head beut for
ward and the eyes strained. Book keepers
have this sort of headache. Sometimes it
may be really neuralgia of the occipital
:-nefve, brought on by exposure To a
= lraught There are generally accompany
lag symptoms whereby a physician is
: aided In his differentiation. There is the
aching at the side of the head, when the
:. eyes DO not focus alike. or are otherwise
not exactly pair. The pince-neZ of over
faStidlous people who need, but will not
wear spectacles. is responsible for a good
+many of the irregularities of the eye that
produce this type of headache. Frequently,
Too, the light caTelessly placed by mother
or nurse just where baby cannot look
directly at II, produces the optical mis-
Grief. The little one is bound to look at
THE light and he rolls his eyes around
until he manages to see it with
one or both. Sometimes the result
Is :strablsmus, sometimes it is stgmatism,
in almost any case it is headache. and baby
means and cries weakly. There is also
.. The true nervous headache. the neuralgia
the sharp, short, knilelike pain so many
women know. Resembling it at times is
=: the facearh he of q decayed tooth, in which
the eyes are often involved. or the neural
gia itself maya facial, usually, in fact very
generally, on the right side
Hemlcrania, pain in one side the head is
:; a. common form of headache, and is the
form most of all the victim is apt 10 term
nervous" 1t is usually the result Of
definite mischief setting up somewhere.
There is the dull, remittent ache of the
oncoming ear disease. with distinct hot
spots ON the side OF the head, usually on
the ''parietal emineGce" and the hemi-
,crania that mas its Judgement in the perios-
:teum, the porous intermediate LAYER of the
bones OF the skull, worse at night when
the relaxation of the blood vessels prior to
sleep begins. There is sense of pressure
ON the affected side, and deep-seated ten
derness. Or, hemicTanla may be migraine
with trouble in the eyes and gastric dis
tufbanceS.
- Your true "sick headache" however. is
flopial. exhausting depressing, terrible.
The vertical headache of cerebral
=. an3mia is very common among women,
=. Men. with their more generous diet. and.
on the whole, more rational habits of life,
are less subject to it. 1t goes with the
.oolorless ears. the pale cOnjunctiva and
sinner lining of the under lp. and some
times varies its form, becoming really
= ireuFalgic when the moan of the nerves
for better blood rises &c a shrek of pain.
Mos: sufferers recognize that theirs is one
particular kind OF headache, and get TO
>. fee sort of proprietary right in their
especial form; but one of this class OF
Sufferers tells you patheticaiy that her
-:'head aches everywhere and in every
wav."
= There is the vertical headache Of pelvic
= trouble in women, "Dressing down Oh the
: BRAIN" they usually describe it, making
them look old, careworn and hollow
eyed. When accompanied with the pink
. tipped nose that so often goes with. it
there Is Indigestion. as well, though some
times this latter symptom is a result OF
tight shoes or cOrsets. The vertical head
: acme is also connected with cerebral af-
fections.
: The congestive headache is familiar to
. us all, when the blood goes shooting
through the veins as in hot balls, storm
ing and forcing its way past every valve
and knocking with sledgehsmmer blows
all along the skull. Il is, perhaps, the
most painful and the easiest managed Of
=. all headaches. There is sense of full
ness between the eyebrows in catarrhal
headache. and the headache that comes
1T -