Injuries of nerves and their consequences - Reflex Sympathetic ...

346 INJURIES OF NERVES.
they are unaffected by the onset of a thunderstorm, or
of southerly rains, although as to the latter point some
of them feel doubtful.
I have never had the chance of absolutely testing the
power of any such patients to predict a storm, but the
intelligence and character of a few of my witnesses lend
force to statements like their own comins^ from less
responsible persons.
Aching pains and twitching of the stump muscles, with
sensations of various kinds, motor or sensory, referred to
the lost part, are the symptoms which are described as
preceding an east wind,* and in
many cases as persisting
until their sudden cessation foretells an impending change
of weather.
Many stumps are liable to slight pain during the performance
of certain normal reflex actions. I have seen
one person who has a sharp pang in the arm -stump
suffer more
when he (left)
yawns, and others who always
or less in leg- stumps (thigh) during defecation. The
most common of such referred sensations is the pain
which is felt in thigh-stumps during micturition. A
hio;hlv intellio-ent o-entleman first mentioned this to me,
and assured me that it was quite frequent among the amputated,
with numbers of whom his business had brought
him into relation. Since then I have had repeated evidence
of the truth of his statement. The pain comes on
at the beginning of the act of passing water, and is felt in
the stump, and sometimes down the lost leg. Professor
Gross, in his Surgery, speaks of incontinence of
urine as apt to follow for a time thigh amputations. I
have only seen two persons in whom there was any such
symptom at a later date. Both were high amputations.
* As every physician knows, these feelings are common to many sufferers
from rheumatic disease or maladies of the bones.