Sulphur. With her pelvic sufferings, she has flushes of heat, weak, fainty spells. She is weak ad faint from about eleven o’clock till noon. Coldness of the feet.
Thuya. The sufferings are greater in the left sacro iliac articulation, the pains running into the left groin. The pain from walking is so insupportable that she must lie down.
The sympathetic nervous disorders that affect young girls in difficult ovulation, are but the prototypes of those affections which occur, during pregnancy, in women of corresponding unhealthy constitutions. Hence, in addition to the more strongly-marked disorders of pregnancy, described in the previous chapter, and in addition to the above-mentioned lesions of the locomotive apparatus, we find disturbances of the nerves of special and of general sense; abnormal conditions of the intellectual faculties, and various depravations of the moral sphere. The more important of these affections will be briefly considered in the order in which we have thus arranged them.
AFFECTIONS OF THE SENSES. – Loss of Hearing. – Davis mentions having seen two cases of the advent of entire deafness during gestation. In the one case the abolition of the sense of hearing came on suddenly during one of the earlier months of gestation, and very gradually returned after delivery; whilst in the other it came on by imperceptible degrees in the seventh and eighth months of pregnancy, and returned suddenly and with painful acuteness on the sixth day after delivery, when the lochia entirely ceased to flow. From Paullini the same author quotes the case of the wife of a citizen who was subject to be seized with an entire loss of hearing about four or five days before she is taken with her labor-pains, – which (deafness) however goes off after her delivery.
Study particularly the following remedies:-
Capsicum. The petrous portion of the ear is much swollen, red and painful.
Causticum. Reverberation of all sounds, even of the patient’s own voice, in the ears.
Graphites. Great dryness in the ears. The deafness is better when riding in a carriage.
Lachesis. The cerumen is too hard; too pale, and insufficient.
Mercurius. Sensation of coldness in the ears continually.
Nitric acid. Much swelling of the internal ear; it is nearly closed, and sometimes there is much pain within it.
Phosphorus. Difficulty in distinguishing the human voice.
Pulsatilla. Sensation as if the ears were stopped up.
Silicea. partial relief is obtained by blowing the nose.
Sulphur. Aggravation for a while after eating, or blowing the nose.
Compare also, Calcarea c.; Petroleum; Hepar; Staphysagria, & c.
The eyes sometimes become the seat of a still more painful affection in pregnancy. Dr. Bezard* (*Journ. de Medorrhinum, par Leroux, xxxiii., p.72) relates the case of a lady who, in the fifth month of her ninth pregnancy, was suddenly and without any known cause seized with a deep-seated pain in her right eye. There was no external sign of disease, except that there was no secretion of tears; there was however a sensation of strong pulsation at the bottom of the orbit, accompanied by acute and frequently repeated lancinating pains, by appearances of rapidly- darting specks before the eyes, and by errors of the vision. Pain of the forehead and at the root of the nose, together with a sense of weight and oppression about those parts aggravated the patient’s distress. In a short time the rays of light ceased to irritate the retina, the eye became insensible to the contact of the finger; and the patient could intently stare at the sun without producing any painful excitement. Inability to sleep accompanied this local affection for several weeks. The delivery was happily accomplished; in the course of some days subsequently the lady found that she could perceive light with the eye which she considered as lost to her, and after some days she could clearly distinguish objects with it. She gradually improved in this respect for eighteen months, when she became enceinte for the tenth time. At about the fifth month, at the same time as in the former pregnancy, she was seized with similar but much more intensely severe pains in the same eye. In this pregnancy the difficulty extended to the left eye also, which after delivery in great measure recovered its functions; but the right eye remained permanently insensible to light.
According to Beer, Plus ( Plus Lawrence on The Eye, p. 612.) amblyopia or amaurosis, accompanied with nausea or with vomiting which cannot be quieted, sometimes occurs early in pregnancy, and ceases after parturition. He saw a young Jewess, who, in her first three pregnancies, which followed in quick succession, began to grow blind in the early period, and became quite amaurotic in the third or fourth month. On the first two occasions she continued blind until after parturition; and the third time her sight never returned. Desmarres also mentions pregnancy among the indirect causes of amaurosis(++) (++)Maladies Des Yeux, Paris, 1847, p.715) Exactly opposite to this is the case quoted by Cazeaux, & & Traite Theorique et Pratique, p.312.) of a young woman whose imperfect vision had compelled her to use spectacles, from childhood, – but whose sight has so much improved immediately after the beginning of her pregnancy that she had no longer need of magnifying glasses.
In affections of the eyes, study the following remedies:-
Aurum. Objects appear as if divided horizontally.
Belladonna. Dim appearance of objects; they appear inverted or double.
Calcarea c. All objects appear as if seen through a mist.
Causticum. Sudden and frequent loss of sight, with sensation of a film before the eyes. The dimness of vision is greater after every headache. Paralysis of the upper eyelids, so that they hang down.
China. She can only distinguish the outlines of distant objects. When reading, the letters appear pale, and surrounded with a white border. She sees better after sleeping.
Cicuta v. The letters seem to move about when she is reading.
Cina. She can see more clearly for a while, after rubbing the eyes.
Hyoscyamus. Frequent spasms of the eyelids. Strabismus. All objects appear of a red color; or larger than they are.
Natrum mur. Frequent spasmodic closing of the eyelids.
Nux v. Heaviness and contraction of the lids.
Phosphorus. All objects appear to be covered with a gray veil.
Pulsatilla. Sensation as if the eyes were covered with a mist, or as if the dimness could be removed by rubbing something off from the eyes.
Sulphur. Dimness of vision and gas, or lamp lights appear to be surrounded by a halo.
Compare also Cyclamen e., Drosera, Mercurius, Ruta, Sepia, Veratrum & c.
HEADACHE. – This forms one of the most common and painful affections of pregnancy. It may arise in part from sedentary habits especially in the more advanced stages of pregnancy; and for similar reasons it may be both complicated with and aggravated by constipation. In persons who are usually subject to headache, the condition of pregnancy may serve to increase the difficulty. The cephalalgia of pregnancy may attack those of an anaemic habit and nervous temperament; or it may appear in connection with a plethoric condition, – indicated by flushing of the face, and giddiness aggravated by stooping. Or again the headache may accompany nausea and other gastric disturbances, with paleness of the countenance and general debility.
The treatment will usually be very simple, since the indications can hardly fail to be plain. When the disorder appears in connection with constipation, -increasing in severity upon each occasion till the bowels are moved, -and seems also to result in some measure from the sedentary mode of life to which so many women addict themselves even when not enceinte, exercise in the open air should be strongly advised, to be taken in the manner best suited to the circumstances of the patient. Among the most important and frequently indicated remedies may be mentioned: Aconite; Belladonna; Bryonia; Nux v.; Pulsatilla; Sepia and Sulphur. But there are numerous other which may required by the particular and accompanying symptoms of individual cases.
NEURALGIA. – Facial neuralgia in pregnancy differs, but little from headache in its causes and requisite mode of treatment, – except that while like headache it may arise in connection with constipation, it is otherwise more apt to occur in persons of a pale, anaemic or nervous temperament, than in those of a ruddy, plethoric habit of body. According to Tyler Smith, “facial neuralgia from uterine irritation, is a very common affection of pregnancy. It generally affects the dental nerves, particularly those of the upper jaw. In many subjects acute caries of the teeth occurs; in some child-bearing women, a tooth or two is lost in each pregnancy. In neuralgia of the face, in pregnant women, without disease of the teeth, the same author says a generous diet is called for, and he advises also wine and porter. (*Braithwaite’s Retrospect, xxxiii., p.252) The latter articles we think can hardly ever be needed in this country, unless perhaps temporarily, in cases of great privation from suitable nourishing food, – in such instances a little wine may aid in restoring the system from its enfeebled condition and thus enable it the more readily to avail itself of a wholesome and nutritious diet. Great care must be taken in cases of severe neuralgia in pregnancy, – cases which may constitute a true spinal neuralgia, – lest from loss of sleep, inability to assimilate suitable food, and the depressing influence of long-continued suffering, the system may become so much reduced as to induce abortion and even fatal marasmus.
