Trials_, 941.

NEURALGIA.[6]

Obstructives and sceptics are in one sense benefactors: although they
do not generally originate improved modes of thought and action, they
at least prevent the adoption of crude theories and ill-digested
measures. To meet the criticism of these opponents, inventive genius
must more carefully bring its ideas and plans to the test of practical
experiment and thorough investigation; and as truth must ultimately
prevail, it cannot be considered unjust or injurious to insist upon
its presenting its credentials. This is, we submit, one of the
benefits resulting from schools, colleges, and guilds: it is difficult
to impress them with novel truths; but in a great degree they act as
breakwaters to the waves of error. In no department of social life is
this doctrine better illustrated than in the medical profession, which
is among the keenest and most sceptical of bodies in scrutinising
novelty; but it has rarely allowed any real improvement to remain
permanently untested and unadopted. We believe this to be the fair
view to take of a class of scientific men who have certainly had a
large share of sarcasm to endure.

General readers, for whom we profess to cater, take no great interest
in medical subjects and discussions; but as historians of what is
doing in the world of art, science, and literature, we think it our
duty to record, in a brief way, any information we can collect that
may be beneficial to the suffering portion of humanity; and in this
'miserable world' it is most probable that one-fourth part of our
readers are invalids. Why should they not have their little troubles,
whims, and maladies studied and cared for? The disease which gives a
title to this short notice is perhaps one of the most mysterious and
vexatious to which our nature is liable; both its cause and cure are
equally occult, and its _modus operandi_ is scarcely intelligible. A
contemporary thus playfully alludes to the subject in terms more funny
than precise:--'What is neuralgia? A nervous spasm, the cause of which
has, however, not been satisfactorily and conclusively demonstrated;
but we may, perhaps, obtain a clearer view of its nature, if we look
upon it as connected with "morbid nutrition." Every one knows that the
system is, or ought to be, constantly subject to a law of waste and
repair; and if the operation of this law is impeded by "cold," "mental
excitement," or any other baneful condition, diseases