A Prevailing Malady

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 21, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 20.

A Prevailing Malady.

HUNDREDS of women all over the country are sufferers from neuralgia to such an extent, in many cases, as to find life a burden. The following extract from the British Medical Review gives one solution as to the cause: "There is no recognized reason why, of late years, neuralgia of the face and scalp should have increased so much in the female sex as compared with our own. There is no doubt that it is one of the most common of female maladies—one of the most painful and difficult of treatment. It is also a cause of much mental depression, and leads more often to habits of intemperance than any other.

"This growing prevalence of neuralgia may, to some extent, be referred to the effects of cold upon the terminal branches of the nerves distributed to the skin; and the reason why men are less subject to it than women may, to a great extent, I think, be explained by the much greater protection afforded by the mode in which the former cover their heads when they are in the open air. It may be observed that the surface of the head which is actually covered in man is at least three times that which fashion allows to a woman; indeed, the points of contact between the hat or bonnet and the head in the latter are so irregular as practically to destroy any protection which might otherwise be afforded.

"If I were to report to the journals a case of facial neuralgia cured on the principle of protecting the lateral and frontal surface of the face, as well as the superior part of the scalp, it might excite a certain amount of ridicule. I can assure you, however, that my patient considers that her case ought to be reported; for she says that, if we cannot do much for neuralgia with our prescriptions, we ought to oppose fashion when we find it prejudicial to health and productive of suffering."—Christian Union.