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

66 INJURIES OF NERVES.
foot, there were very red spots.
Oue of these was in the
popliteal space, and one over the point where the peroneal
nerve dips into the muscles.
Under active treatment the pain lessened, but the foot
became subject to severe burning, and it was many months
before the patient recovered from the shock of this painful
From being a man of gay and kindly temper,
malady.
known in his company as a good-natured jester, he became
morose and melancholy, and complained that reading
gave him vertigo, and that his memory of recent events
was bad.
— Diagnosis and j^rognosis. I do not see how this malady
can well be confounded with any other, especially when
it is the result of a wound. Its future must depend, to
some extent, upon how soon it is recognized, how boldly
and skillfully treated. It may pass away, as I have said,
doing little harm, or, what is more probable,
it may occasion
subacute neuritis or sclerosis, or may be the fertile
parent of neuralgia, causalgia, joint disease, and local
palsies.
Chronic or subacute neuritis.— This condition is a common
consequence of wounds of nerves, and is
apt to
follow amputations, but, though rare as an idiopathic
malady, it is not excessively uncommon. It is brought
on by cold or rheumatism, and as a result of acute neuritis,
while only once have I seen it as a consequence of
syphilis.
Symptoms.— Subacute neuritis is often incapable of distinct
clinical discrimination when of a mild type, and
when there is an absence of traumatic cause. In its fullest
development it is characterized, as I have seen it, by the
following peculiarities, which are best marked after it
has existed for a length of time. The affected nerve is
tender over a large portion of its track, and the points of
emergence, from a bone or thi'ough a fascia,
are still