I have seen one case, that of a girl of 12 years of age, who suffered from severe neuralgic pain in the neck, radiating down the cervical nerves on both sides, which was caused entirely by eyestrain, and was cured by the use of the proper glasses. .
I here no doubt that the Homoeopathic therapeutics of such conditions are well known to all present, but they will be of little avail if the help of properly-adjusted glasses is neglected; not “Pincenez,” which sometimes provoke fresh headache in a sensitive child by their pressure on the bridge of the nose, but light-framed spectacles. There are three drugs which I have been led to use, of which the first, Acid picric., is perhaps not sufficiently valued; the pathogenesy of this drug points to both the headache and the ocular symptoms; I have used it in the higher potencies, by which I mean from 12 to 30; NItrate of silver and Cimicifuga are the other two; these I mention as being, possibly, outside the general run of headache remedies, and because they have served me well. I use the two latter in varying doses, but the Cimicifuga in lower potencies, 3x, or thereabouts.
I think that the headaches of girls at approaching puberty are becoming more general in our times; the new physical regime has not been universally adopted as yet, though in families where it has been practical of from childhood, I find less suffering among the girls as menstruation comes on; the cause of a girl’s headache at this period of her life is generally well recognized by mothers, who are awake to then necessity of physiological rest at these times; I need not detain you with therapeutics here, but drop a word to attract your attention to the tendency of Homoeopathic mothers having a fancy for Pulsatilla in all these troubles of their girls; it seems very apt to act upon the ovaries rather too freely, for the tendency in most girls is to rather free less of blood at the first few periods, more often than the opposite (in my won experience), and Pulsatilla increases this tendency unduly; Coffea and Ferrum seem often useful.
The “genital headaches” of boys at puberty often cause much suffering, and in all cases of intractable headache in boys the possibility of approaching puberty should receive attention. Other genital irritation in boys also seem to play a prominent part in causing headache, and in my own experience I have found that phymosis is not seldom a cause of headache in boys, as it is of many nervous symptoms; and you, no doubt, will all remember cases where circumcision has cured such troubles. I have known, in several cases, the most happy results from circumcision in boys headaches.
I will not deal with the headache of febrile states, since our attention in such cases in turned to the fever rather than the headache alone; but there are headache accompanied by fever, and due to malaria, which are instances of the headache being the main guiding symptom. I think they are usually intermittent; they are either very vague and general in the locality they affect, or occasionally will be truly neuralgic, the pain being fixed in one or other of the cranial nerves, or at least being felt over the surface where the nerves are distributed, and perhaps the supra- orbital region, comes before us, we have the true sphere for Quinine to be used Homoeopathically.
I may, perhaps, be at variance with others when I state that I do not think that true “migraine” is often seen in children. In the case of the children of parents who are sufferers from migraine we certainly often see headache, but I find them usually to be coincident with some digestive upset, and the vomiting, if presents, to be more often controlled by remedies acting upon the stomach than by such as are chosen upon the cerebral supposition. I recognize that these pathological suppositions are alien to the Homoeopathy held by many, but I think that in most cases it will be found that a remedy, chosen first on the ground of the totality of the symptoms, turns out, on further examination, to be also the pathological similar.
Still, there are cases of headache in children in which, before the onset of pain, we hear of various warning symptoms, such as flashes of light before the eyes, or sensations of dimness of sight, or, in some cases, temporary weakness or paralysis of an arm or leg, either motor or sensory, or both. Then the pain in the head, localized generally in a definite4 spot on one side of the forehead, comes on, and is followed by vomiting. Such headaches, if frequent in onset, are probably true migraine, not coincident with dyspeptic trouble, and they may be hereditary. The first point is to eliminate the possibility of eye strain, for this is more frequently the cause of migraine than is sometimes supposed. In such cases of true migraine in children, Coffea 6 and Acid carbolic 12 have served me well.
I need scarcely mention the importance of headache where the pain is felt near the mastoid bones or round the ear, as indicating ear disease, but I have seen the neglect of timely surgical interference very injurious in at least three such cases. The pain is not headache, though generally described as such.
And we must always be on our guard when we meet with serious nervous symptoms, such as spasm of the muscles of the neck or spine, paralysis of muscles, twitchings or convulsions, in connection with children’s headaches. Such indications of possible cerebral mischief, tubercle or tumor, are, of course, known to us all.
Finally, I would not the headache of renal disorder. I would urge regular testing of the urine in all cases of children’s headaches, for if, as is sometimes the case, the pain is coincident with uraemia or albuminuria, our remedies will be of no use unless those symptoms are placed in the front rank when drawing up the total symptoms. .
Ladies and gentleman, I ask kind indulgence for this hurried, incomplete, and very unscientific contribution. If you have any discussion upon this matter of practical detail, you will find material in the mere demolishing of my observations.
DISCUSSION.
PHOEBE J.B. WAITE., M.D.: The last paper read was especially interesting because I believe so many children suffer from headache when they ought to be made comfortable and cured, and the one thing above all others which gives suffering to children I believe to be eye-strain. As soon as they are put in schools they commence to droop. If the child a myopic, there is a request that he be put in the front of the room, but no thought is given to the hyperopic child. I believe the uses of the ophthalmoscope are going to prolong the lives of children in bringing out this infirmity. Many children suffer from headaches, but we have our Pulsatilla and kindred drugs to help them. If your child suffers with headache, don’t forget to take it to the oculist. This would be a beautiful specially for a woman.
DR. DUFFIELD: There are many cases of near sightedness which can be cured simply by having the patient accustom himself to distant objects. Take them out in the country, and in this way we get the muscles stretched, which is a good as nerve-stretching in other cases. I have cured cases of nearsightedness by having the patient go to live in the country, and so accommodate the eye to long distances.
A physician in the audience: I remember a case coming under my care several years ago of girl having epilepsy, and she had a spasm once in about eight days. I found, on inquiry, she used sugar excessively, and when she left off sugar the spasms ceased in two or three months. There is a great deal in diet. Another cause of headache is want of ventilation in the schoolroom. Most of our schoolrooms are very poorly ventilated. There ought to be a radical change in this matter. We ought to turn our attention to hygienic methods more than we do.
