Douches, as hot as can be borne, on the limb followed by cold, especially if patients are otherwise in good health, will do much to relieve the stagnant circulation.
Active and vigorous movement while the affected part is supported at _skin pressure_ (there must be no constriction) is even more valuable than {389} ma.s.sage, liniments or douches in the treatment of all these painful conditions of joints in which there is any scar-tissue.
Wonderful results may be obtained in an old sprain of the wrist, knee and ankle by covering in the part completely (taking care to surround the limb) with strips of adhesive strapping simply laid on at skin pressure, but following exactly every fold or angle of the part, and then with the part completely covered in this way to urge immediate and constant exercise. The maintained pressure prevents any tendency to venous congestion or exudation and favors absorption of fibrous tissue, and exercise, which should be immediate, is now possible through the support furnished by the strapping. The re-a.s.sumption of normal active movement molds the old scars, strengthens the muscles and ligaments and improves the patient"s general condition. The relief afforded _is immediate_, and the cause of relief, a simple mechanical device, is apparent. Rheumatism is forgotten as the old crutch is discarded and the patient is able to use the limb with confidence.
Recent sprains or bruises treated in this way recover perfectly and do not leave old scar tissue to be a future seat of pain.
CHAPTER III
MUSCULAR PAINS AND ACHES
Whenever exposure to cold causes a period of discomfort in almost any organ, except the teeth and certain definite nerves (for neuralgia has been taken out of the rheumatism group in recent years) we are sure to hear the word rheumatism employed in connection with it. To add to the confusion, the various "specialists" have taken to a.s.suring their patients that local manifestations in the eyes, in the ears, and in the nose, for which they can find no good reason, especially if they are worse in damp weather, are signs of the rheumatic diathesis.
Unfortunately, our supposed knowledge of the uric acid diathesis became widely diffused, and it is not surprising in the light of the widespread acceptance of this theory, that muscular pains of all kinds should have the word rheumatic attached to them, and that patients are sure that the discomfort is only one manifestation of a severe const.i.tutional disease, which they cannot but infer will probably make still more serious trouble for them in years to come, since it seems to be dependent on conditions beyond their control, such as heredity and general const.i.tutional traits and their special mode of nutrition, rather than on local or pa.s.sing conditions.
Local and Const.i.tutional Conditions.--It cannot be repeated too often that it is this persuasion as to the const.i.tutional character of the disease that has in recent years proved a very unfavorable suggestive element in these cases. Patients think themselves the victims of a serious diathesis, a deep-seated pathological condition, and attribute a host of feelings to it that are sometimes rather seriously disturbing but are really only sensory manifestations of various kinds in the organs and in the skin and muscles, which would be attributed to simple local causes--fatigue, faulty mechanical conditions, etc.--but for the concentration of attention on them.
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_Individual Cases_.--The careful study of these cases is thus extremely important. They are eminently individual and not to be grouped together. The exact diagnosis of the various conditions from which each patient is suffering is of itself a precious factor in psychotherapeutics. The precise recognition of the condition present is of immediate avail in helping him to dismiss many of his symptoms, or at least to keep him from thinking as much of them as he did before or inevitably will if the older ideas as to the const.i.tutional nature of his affection are allowed to remain.
Nearly every large group of muscles in the body may be the subject of these painful conditions. In recent years, perhaps, the muscles most affected in this way are those that pa.s.s around the ankle and give so much discomfort in cases of flatfoot, or beginning flatfoot (euphemistically called weak foot), when the plantar arch is yielding.
The manifestations are not only in and around the ankle, but occur in the calf muscles and even above the knee. These painful conditions always develop unless the arch is supported. Until recent years it was rare to discover a bad case of flatfoot in which the patient had not taken many rheumatic remedies and had not come to the conclusion that he was the subject of an incurable and probably hereditary const.i.tutional disease. Flatfoot is likely to cause considerable deformity in the old, the toes becoming bent and twisted up, and the subjects of it complain very much of their feet. Flatfoot runs in families. When the father and mother have complained of what they called rheumatism in their feet which got worse every year, then the son and daughter, when they have their first manifestation, conclude that they are inevitably bound by the stern laws of heredity.
Occupation Aches.--Flatfoot is taken, however, only as an extreme and therefore striking ill.u.s.tration. Whenever a particular group of muscles has to do an excessive amount of work, practically always there is a development of an uncomfortable condition worse on rainy days and therefore likely to be called rheumatic. Over-use of the arm at any occupation, in writing, in the use of a file, at an ironing-board, in sewing, or at anything requiring repeated movements, will produce it almost inevitably. Especially is this true if the occupation is carried on without such careful attention to muscular action as enables the muscles to do their work to the best advantage.
These painful conditions are much more likely to occur in run-down individuals of nervous temperament, above all if they have been or are subject to worry. Men who have lost money and now have to do hard physical work, after previously having lived sedentary lives, and women whose previous source of support has been withdrawn and who have to work for a daily wage after former gentle conditions of living, are especially likely to suffer in this way. The conditions develop on a neurotic basis or an exhausted nervous system.
Other groups of muscles may also be the subject of these painful conditions. The large group in the loins, called the lumbar muscles, which are so important for stooping, for the erect posture and for lifting, are so commonly the subject of discomfort that a special name has been applied to their affection--lumbago. In the leg the large group of muscles supplied by the sciatic nerve are likely to be affected, and this affection is so common in men who have to bend the knee and flex the hip at their work that it, too, has received a special name--sciatica. Besides the arm muscles the groups of muscles around the shoulder girdle are often unfavorably affected and though we have not invented {391} a name to cover their conditions, it is so common that we think of it as a separate ent.i.ty almost in the same manner as we think of lumbago and sciatica. In the neck the group of muscles that rule the movements of the head, especially those at the side may be affected and the special name of torticollis has been given. Practically all of these affections are thought of at times as rheumatic and the ordinary rheumatic treatment is given for them.
There is no doubt that the salicylates will relieve the pain almost at once, but so will any other coal-tar product and phenacetin, acetanilid or even antipyrin may be used with good effect. There is no evidence, however, that these drugs make the underlying condition better and, indeed, after patients have tried them for a while, unless the affection is merely pa.s.sing, they try some other physician and perhaps are treated the same way with a different form of the drug.
These are the cases that make their way around to a number of regular pract.i.tioners of medicine and then eventually go to some irregular or quack and sometimes obtain relief where the regulars have failed.
When the irregular succeeds it is always because he has done three things. First he has persuaded the patient that it is not rheumatism, with all the unfavorable suggestion that goes with that word, that is, the matter with him; secondly, he has treated the local condition; and, thirdly, he has diverted the patient"s mind. Local treatment is often the real secret of his success, though the psychotherapeutic element is not without distinct benefit.
Mode of Occurrence.--These muscular conditions present themselves under two forms, acute and chronic. The acute condition occurs almost suddenly and is accompanied by spasmodic pain and acute discomfort.
Muscles go into spasm to avoid the movement that would necessarily bring pain with it. A typical example is found in torticollis in which the patient wakes up some morning to find a stiffness in the muscles of his neck with limitation of movement much more p.r.o.nounced on one side, and this usually gets worse as movements are attempted during the day. This spasmodic painful condition usually lasts for some days and suggests all sorts of topical applications and often requires anodyne drugs. A similar acute condition may be observed in some cases of lumbago. In this the pain in the loins comes on suddenly, usually during movement, often in the midst of lifting something that one has been able to lift without difficulty before. This pain is so sudden, so unexpected, usually comes entirely without warning and seems so mysterious in its origin, that it is no wonder the Germans speak of it as _Hexenschuss_--"witches" shot"--a remnant of the superst.i.tion that a witch, by means of the evil eye or some other maleficent power, or by sticking pins in a wax image of a victim that had previously been devoted to the devil, might produce effects upon the person at the part where the thought was directed or the pin inserted.
These painful conditions, especially when acute, are, as a rule the consequence of exposure to dampness, or to a draft blowing directly on the part, usually in damp and changeable weather, and often when the patient has been sweating just before. The train of events that brings about the painful condition is not difficult to understand. There is a disturbance of the normal smooth-running, indeed almost frictionless, mechanism by which muscles glide over one another. There are practically a series of joints in all muscular groups so as to permit just as free a play as possible of muscles over one another. Each muscle is covered with a glistening membrane so familiar {392} from our dissecting room days, which secretes a substance resembling a synovial fluid, to enable muscles to move upon each other without friction. When, because of exposure to drafts or the evaporation of moisture on the surface, there is a disturbance of the circulation in these intermuscular planes, the secretion which prevents the friction of muscle movements is disturbed. The blood is driven from the surface and some congestion and consequent heat acc.u.mulation occurs in the muscles, affecting particularly their contiguous layers. As a result, the muscle surfaces are no longer smooth and the muscles now have not as free play over one another as before. It is not surprising that, owing to this, sensitiveness occurs and some spasm develops. This, however, is thoroughly conservative in character since nature"s idea is to set the part at rest so as to allow the normal condition to be restored.
This is the pathological condition that underlies these so-called muscular rheumatisms which develop suddenly. It is important to note, however, that these conditions develop nearly always in people who have been over-using or wrongly using the groups of muscles which become thus affected. The history of a torticollis patient will usually show that there is some contortion of the muscles of the neck familiarly practiced by him. Sometimes it will be found that the patient has the habit of sitting on a particular easy chair in a special relation to the light and that in order to accommodate himself to his chair and the light in his reading, the head has to be placed in such position that the neck muscles are constrained. It is this that predisposes the patient to the development of the condition which seems to be so acute and yet is really only an exacerbation of a chronic condition. Lumbago will develop in men who have been stooping much, especially for heavy lifting, or in women who scrub or have to stoop much while cleaning, dusting and the like.
Some interesting muscle pains occur as a consequence of the jostling movements of various modes of transit. They are particularly noticeable if an uncomfortable position has been maintained for a number of hours. People who travel on railroad trains often come with the story that they _must_ have caught cold on the trip for they have been sore and achy in many of their muscles since. I have known people who went on a crowded excursion and had to stand for several hours confident that, standing in the drafty aisle of the car on their way home, they had acquired rheumatism. All that had happened was over-tiredness of muscles on the jolting train which required constant balancing and unaccustomed muscular exertion. On board sea-going vessels people often suffer from pains in the loins and in various trunk muscles, due to the roll of the vessel, especially while they are asleep. These, too, are likely to be attributed to drafts, or to some form of rheumatism, or at least to the catching of cold. I have even seen people sure, because of pains in their loins, that they must be developing some kidney trouble. After a time they get used to the swinging motion of the vessel and then their achy muscle tiredness is relieved.
One now sees affections of the same kind in connection with the automobile. People who ride for many hours, especially if the riding is rapid and over a rough road and they are not used to it, are likely to develop pains and aches which they may attribute to the catching of cold or to rheumatism or to something of that kind. The muscles of the trunk are especially likely to {393} suffer. The abdominal muscles may be quite sore and then later the lumbar muscles develop aches. The arms suffer if they are held in unusual positions because of the jolting. The discomfort may be relieved by any of the coal-tar products, though gentle rubbing with a stimulant such as soap liniment, always in the direction of the return circulation in the muscle, will help to relieve the painful condition. The salicylates are often given for these conditions and relieve the discomfort but because of their value as anodynes, which they share with the coal-tar products, and not because of any genuine antirheumatic effect.
Treatment.--Counter-irritation of various kinds, especially the milder forms, always seems to do good. The underlying therapeutic principle seems to be that the attraction of blood to the surface lessens the hyperemia or at least diverts the circulation and permits the restoration of function and encourages the reintegration of normal conditions. Rubbings are especially helpful if accompanied by rather deep pressure from the periphery of the circulation towards the center. The leg muscles must be rubbed upward, the arm muscles upward, the neck muscles downward, the trunk muscles generally in the direction of their return circulation. This would seem to indicate, as might be expected, that it is the venous circulation especially that is disturbed in the tired condition of the muscles, that a venous congestion with interference with the nutrition of nerves accounts for the aches; hence, a mechanical helping of the circulation is of benefit. There are some whose opinion is not to be put aside lightly, who think that the rubbing alone is the most important part of these external treatments and that the liniments and counter-irritants are only of secondary importance. Indeed, some consider that the tingling of the surface is mainly beneficial in making the patient feel that now that part of the body at least _ought_ to be better.
Liniments for these conditions, however, though introduced on merely empirical grounds, are very old and have the testimony of many generations as to their therapeutic efficiency. Whenever that is the case, it is a serious question to doubt the conclusions that have been arrived at. The experience of a single generation, and, above all, of a small group or school of men, no matter how learned or how scientific they may be, is often fallacious. The experience of many generations, however, even though no good reason for the benefit derived from the treatment they suggest can be found, is almost inevitably correct. After all, though it is usually forgotten, the use of mercury, of iron, of quinin and of most of the tonics depends on nothing better than empiricism. In our day the liniments have been neglected, more perhaps than was proper, considering how many generations of physicians found them beneficial.
Where it is a neurosis rather than a real disturbance of the circulation, however, that is involved, the use of a counter-irritant, by attracting attention more and more to the part, may really do more harm than good. In nervous people it must be remembered that local neurosis may occur almost anywhere in the body and that subjective discomfort alone in these cases must not be taken to signify a pathological condition, unless the localization is such as to indicate that a particular group of muscles is affected. The differential distinction between a pure neurosis and a discomfort due to a true pathological condition in the intermuscular planes is, that in the one case a group of muscles is affected, while in the other a locality is complained of, and {394} while local tenderness is likely to be a marked source of complaint in the neurosis it is comparatively slight as a rule in the muscular condition.
For the more chronic soreness and discomfort of muscle groups, manipulations with ma.s.sage are of great importance. Undoubtedly the discomfort and soreness is due in most cases to a disturbance of the venous or lymphatic circulation of the parts. This interferes with the nutrition of nerves and leads to nerve sensitiveness from lack of nutrition, or actual nerve irritation from pressure upon sensitive nerve endings while in a state of congestion. These conditions may be relieved by gentle manipulation and by ma.s.sage, provided always these measures are not painful. These encourage the circulation and very soon tend to restore functions. Just as soon as the pain of these remedial measures or of any mechano-therapy becomes noticeable, it is not likely that they are doing any good. Pain, of course, must be judged from conditions and not from the patient"s complaints, which may be due to fear lest pain should be inflicted.
The main point is that local treatment, gentle, simple, yet directed with the proper therapeutic purpose so as to create a favorable expectancy in the patient"s mind, will do much for these conditions, which have in many ways been the opprobrium of modern medicine. The rule has almost been to call them rheumatism, because they were worse in rainy weather. The word rheumatic instinctively calls up in most physicians" minds some cut-and-dried formula of internal medication.
So these patients go the rounds of the regular pract.i.tioners in medicine taking a series of these formulae in succession and, as a rule, not getting any better. Then they go to an osteopath or to a naturapath, or some other kind of path, have some local ma.s.sage and manipulations performed, which restores the circulation of the part, to some degree at least, and as a consequence they are encouraged to look for further relief. Not a few of them find the relief they look for, and it is these cured patients that in many parts of the country have insisted on securing for the osteopaths legislative recognition and actually obtained it for them in many cases, just because the regular physicians have neglected methods of cure ready to hand, but not made use of, because drugs are allowed to occupy their attention too exclusively.
Disuse, Atrophy and Pain.--I have seen a striking example of atrophy and pain due entirely to disuse in the upper part of the leg as the consequence of a fall. No bone was broken, the man was laid up for nearly a month from the wrench, and then continued to be somewhat halt for many years. After nearly twenty years his attention became concentrated on this limb and then he spared it more and more in his walking, tilting his pelvis and merely swinging that leg, until there was a difference of nearly two inches between the size of the thighs.
Of course, under these circ.u.mstances any use of the limb brought fatigue and pain with it. To walk was painful, and he had some twitchings at night. There was no disturbance of sensation, however, anywhere and no reaction of degeneration. His knee jerk was slighter than on the other side, but it was present and the weakness was due to the loss of power in the muscles. It was only weak in proportion to the atrophy of the muscles. This atrophy was not trophic in the sense of any failure of nerve impulses from the central nervous system, but was due to disuse, that is, it did not come from any nervous lesion, central or peripheral, nor from any disturbance of circulation, but from the dwindling of muscles that inevitably {395} comes when they are not employed for their proper purpose. Power to use depends on continuance of function.
All sorts of remedies had been employed in his case, but he did not improve until he was made to understand that there was no bone lesion, no lesion of nerves or muscles, and that what he needed to do was to re-exercise his muscles gently but persistently and confidently back to their normal strength. This was accomplished by exercise and resisted motion, with care never to fatigue the muscles, but at the first sign of tiredness to stop, taking up the exercises at first twice, and then three and four times a day.
As can be readily understood, these curious atrophic muscular conditions from disuse occur more frequently in the legs than in the arms. They may, however, occur in the upper extremities and are noted sometimes in the trunk. After all, certain of the stooping postures of men as they get old are due to lack of use of the large muscles at the back with consequent atrophy of them to the extent that makes standing up straight an effort very fatiguing and even painful. To attempt to straighten an old man by means of braces will lead to the development of painful conditions of tiredness if the correction is emphasized. In the arms the atrophic conditions are not so noticeable because the arms may be used without having to do the hard work required of the trunk and leg muscles in holding the man erect. It is the fear of the strain put upon them by this weight that makes the disuse continue, since there has come into the mind the thought that the muscles cannot be used to bear the weight and the burden is thrown on other muscles with unfortunate results.
Many of these atrophies from disuse are cured by mental influence of one kind or another. They are the best sources of profit and reputation of the "healers." Once the patients become persuaded that they can use a group of muscles if they will, they begin to improve, and it is only a question of six or eight weeks until they are so much better that they persuade themselves that they are as well as ever. It is easy to understand that if a person who has been lame for five to fifteen years, vainly going to physicians of all kinds, is cured by some new form of treatment, all the non-medical world is perfectly sure that there must be much in the new method of treatment.
CHAPTER IV
OCCUPATION MUSCLE AND JOINT PAINS
There is one variety of painful conditions of muscles and joints, often spoken of as muscular rheumatism or as chronic rheumatism and frequently the source of so much discomfort that patients feel that occupations must be given up, even at a great sacrifice. These deserve a special chapter. They occur in persons who have some occupation which requires them to use a particular group of muscles a great number of times during the day. They are most frequent in the arms, but they may be seen in the muscles of the neck, they occur very often in the legs and are not at all infrequent in the muscles of the trunk.
Whenever a patient comes complaining of a painful condition in a particular group of muscles, careful inquiry must be made as to his {396} occupation, with details of the movements required. These pains are, of course, as are all human discomforts, worse on rainy days and in damp seasons, so that this has come to be known as rheumatic weather. It is easy to a.s.sume without further inquiry that they are rheumatic and this has been done frequently in the past.
There is scarcely any occupation involving frequent and habitual use of muscles which may not be the source of discomfort if the actions necessary for it are done in such a way as not to use the muscles to the best mechanical advantage. In other words, there are a whole group of occupation fatigues which may take on a character of painful discomfort if the individual has not been properly trained in the use of his muscles. This refers not only to the use of muscles in the accomplishment of rather difficult tasks, but especially for those that require nice co-ordination for their accomplishment, though they may not demand the exertion of much muscular energy. In other words, what we have to deal with are rather painful occupation-neuroses than muscular fatigue in its proper sense.
Writers" Ache.--Perhaps the most typical example of these is the painful conditions that may develop in connection with writing.
Writers" cramp is well known and consists in a contraction of muscles which makes it increasingly difficult to hold the pen properly for writing and may eventually make it impossible to do so. This is accompanied by a certain amount of distress, but the writer"s discomfort that is much more common than writers" cramp does not occur in the fingers, but in the large group of muscles just below the elbow and may extend even to the shoulder. The pain is of a vague achy character and as it is worse on rainy days and in damp weather, the temptation to think of it as rheumatism is very great. It occurs in people who write very much and rapidly, but especially those who write in a bad position. Now that the typewriter has come in much less is heard of it than before among reporters, but it used to be common with them. There is very little hint that it is due to writing, unless one makes careful inquiries.
_Gowers" Rule_.--Its occurrence can be lessened to a great extent by following Sir Wm. Gowers" directions as to writing. Gowers was a parliamentary reporter before becoming a physician and he learned the difficulties of much writing and studied out the causes of the discomfort as well as of the cramp and of the best methods to avoid it. His rule is to sit on a rather high chair before a rather low table so that the elbow swings free of the table and the writing is what is called free-hand. The extent to which Gowers demands this freedom of the elbow carried may be best appreciated from his direction that the writing must be done in such a way that if a second pen were fastened to the elbow, it would write exactly the same thing that is written by the pen held in the hand. There must not be any movements of the fingers nor of the muscles of the forearm. All the movements required from writing must be accomplished from the shoulder. Just as soon as sufferers from vague aches and discomforts from much writing learn this method of writing, their aches disappear to a great extent. My own experience in the matter, when, as a medical reporter, I often wrote ten thousand words a day, taught me the value of the suggestion. During one winter I suffered so much from discomfort in the shoulder that I was sure that I had a progressive rheumatic affection. Just as soon as I learned to write properly the trouble was minimized to such {397} a degree that I realized that it was merely a question of faulty writing. I have noted over and over again, as is true in my own case, that if there has previously been any injury in the arm, this discomfort is much more likely to develop than otherwise.
Occupation Pains and Habitual Muscle Movements.--What is true for writing is true for any habitual movement of groups of muscles requiring careful co-ordination. I have seen it in marked form in the makers of cigars and the strippers of tobacco. I have seen it in men who do much filing and whose working bench is so high, that pressure direct from their shoulders cannot be brought into play to supply any force that is needed in carrying on the filing process. If such a series of movements as filing is to be accomplished with comfort, then the arms must be held straight, the force being applied from the shoulders and not by the exertion of the muscles of the forearm, which are meant only to guide and not to supply the needed pressure. The Sloyd methods of working at benches are particularly important for workmen if they are not to develop these curious painful conditions which are due to habitual wrong use of muscles, and not to any diathesis. Any and every form of work must be looked at from this standpoint. Women often iron at a table or ironing board placed too high for them, and as a result apply the pressure necessary through their forearm muscles. If they are at all of nervous const.i.tution they will suffer rather serious discomfort from this after a time and this will always be worse in damp weather. I have known women ready to give up because of the discomfort thus occasioned, who found that they could work without muscle discomfort for much longer periods, if the ironing board was placed low enough.
_Arm and Shoulder_.--The occupation aches and discomforts in the arm and shoulder are very frequent and their variety presents an interesting study in the individual and his history. I remember once having three cases present themselves at a dispensary service of the Polyclinic Hospital on the same day, all presumably suffering from rheumatism. One of them was a motorman suffering from the occupation pains that so often come to those who use their arms overmuch, and the pains seen so frequently, for instance, in baseball pitchers. These pains are always worse on rainy days and in damp weather. There is of course a large individual element as the basis of these. Why can one man pitch nearly every day all season and not suffer with his arm while another man cannot? We can no more tell the reason for this difference than we can tell why one man is right-handed and another left-handed. One individual has a store of nervous energy that serves him very well. Another has a store of nervous energy that serves him well enough for his left hand but not for his right hand. The mystery would seem to be the original endowment of nerve force according to the individual"s const.i.tution. The motorman who suffers severely from putting on the brake of a heavy car will probably never be able to continue his occupation with comfort to himself unless his sore arm is due to some temporary condition, easily recognizable.
A second of my patients with rheumatism complained of his shoulder. He had been first easily fatigued, then it was painful when he moved much, most so on rainy days, and finally he had practically lost power in it entirely. His occupation was that of finisher in a molding works. He lifted a heavy hammer many hundreds of times a day with his right arm, striking quick short {398} blows and using mainly his deltoid muscle in the lifting process. It was just his deltoid that was affected and the nerve supply had evidently given out. The third man complained not of his right hand, but of his left and of his forearm, not his shoulder, having lost power especially on the ulnar side of his hand. He was a stonecutter, who held a chisel firmly in his left hand, grasping it mainly with the under or ulnar side of his hand, and consequently overusing the group of muscles supplied by his ulnar nerve, leaving that structure open to pathological conditions.
There was just one feature in the history of all three that was the same. They did not drink alcohol to excess often, but they did take some whiskey straight every day. The easiest explanation seemed to be that there was a neuritis set up in the nerves, which their occupations caused them to use so much, and that, as a consequence, the low grade neuritis finally developed to such a condition as to make further use of the muscle supplied by the affected nerves practically impossible. Just why alcohol will select certain nerves and not others upon which to exercise its deteriorating influence and why lead usually affects an entirely different set we do not know. In the ordinary man of sedentary occupation who walks occasionally, as his only exercise, his most used nerve is his anterior peroneal. Those of us who are not used to walking much, know how soon this nerve complains of fatigue when we take some forced ambulatory effort. It is this nerve then that with most people is affected by alcohol. But any nerve that is overused will apparently be affected the same way, and as many outdoor workers take some whiskey straight pretty regularly, it is not surprising to find that some of them have an idiosyncrasy and develop a low grade alcoholic neuritis.