The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-12-14
THE LARGEST NERVE.
WHAT VICTIMS OF scIATIcA
HAVE TO ENDURE.
There Is Mystery About the Affec-
ton Which Puzzles Ply
sicians-A Word Of
Advice


1t is a singular thing that there
should be a rheumatism of the nerves
apart from rheumatism of the muscles
and bones. We are accustomed to
think OF all pain as being located in
the nerves, but in most cases the
nerves are only the telegraph wires
informing the brain of what is going
on in the muscles and other tissues.
When there is rheumatism in the
nerves themselves we may confidently
look for trouble, says the Chicago
Chronicle.
The largest nerve in the body and
the one most subject to rheumatism
is the sciatic nerve. so called from
Greek word meaning the hip. 1t
takes its rise in the sacral plexus near
the base of the spine, and passes down
the thigh on the outer side quite close
to the surface. At the knee-toint it
splits into two branches. one of which
passes down each side of the calf of
the leg. Rheumatism in this great
nerve is called sciatica.
The pain produced by sciatica Is
different from the pain of muscular
rheumatism in two ways. The pain
of muscular rheumatism is felt al
| most entirely when there is muscular
action. The pain of sciatica is ag-
gravated by muscular action, but it
ia continuous. anyway and may be ac-
| companied by occasional paroxysms.
| Another difference IS that muscular
| rheumatism is not aggravated by
pressure on the muscles. but sciatica
| is intimately connected with pressure
and greatly aggravated by It, If it is
not in the first place produced by it,
When person has a good case of
sciatica on hand that is the only care
he has. He may be hungry, thirsty.
| betrayed and deserted by family and
friends. bankrupt in business and
ruined in reputation, society may be
filled with abuses and the country be
plunging headlong into destruction,
but the sciatica sufferer is obllvlous Of
it all and has only enc trouble-that
internal pain in his leg. Chalmers
speaks of the eXfpulsive power of
new affection" but that is nothing
compared With the expulsive power OF
scialic pain.
There is one mystery about sciatica
that physicians have never been able
to solve and that is that II affects
only the left leg. There is a sciatica
nerve in the right leg, too but il Is
as well-behaved and harmless a nerve
as there is in the body. Once in a
century there will be a case of sciatica
in the right leg, but it is such an
unusual occurrence that 1t may be
dismissed from the mind as a neg
ligible danger. The habitat and stamp
ing ground of sciatica is in the left
leg.
The speculations of a layman on
such a subject may be worth a great
deal, but is there not possibility that
Sciatica prefers the left leg because
the leg is habitually maltreated? ?
SciaJlca is almost always produced by
pressure, especially against hard and
cold surfaces, though 1t may result
even from the internal pressure caused
by constipation. This being known.
is 1t not likely that the disease is gen
orally due to habitual exposure to cold
and to pressure?
II so, there is a solution of the left
leg mystery in the fact that almost
everyone has a habit of sitting most
ly in a sidelong position on his left
side. Even in sitting at a desk to
write person will without noticing 1t
sit for hours on his left thigh. No
one would believe how invincible this
left leg habit is unless he has tried
to break himself of 1t When the dis
ease has once been set up there Is no
side, because he cannot sit on any
other-and live.
A sciatica patient need never hope
to recover unless he absolutely ceases
to sit on his left thigh or even to lie
on it in bed AS to we'll people who
are candidates for sciatica terrors, the
best thing they can do is to make a
habit of sitting on the cold, hard seats
OF the street cars and the Office and
on the left thigh. The rheumatic sea
son OF the year is now with us, and
rheumatism is within the reach of
rich and poor alike. Who wishes to