y numbed into a condition of anaesthesia, when
naturally the pain would diminish.

In politer circles a similar misapprehension has also given rise to a
favorite form of treatment. That is the application of cold in the form
of the classic wet cloth sprinkled with _eau de Cologne_. The mere
mention of headache calls up in the minds of most of us memories of a
darkened room, a pale face on the pillow with a ghastly bandage over the
eyes, and a pervading smell of _eau de Cologne_. It was a perfectly
natural conclusion that, because the head throbbed and felt hot and
bursting, there must be some inflammation, or at least congestion,
present, and that the application of cold would relieve this. The
results seemed to justify this belief, for in many cases the sense of
coolness to the aching head gives great relief; but this is apt to be
only temporary, and in really severe cases makes the situation worse by
adding another depressing influence--cold--to the toxin-burdens that are
weighing upon the tortured nerves. The chief virtue in these cold cloths
and handkerchiefs soaked in cologne was that you were compelled to lie
down and keep perfectly still in order to keep them on, while at the
same time they mechanically blindfolded you. Few better devices for
automatically insuring that absolute rest, which is the best and only
rational cure for a headache, have ever been invented.

We were not long in discovering that headaches, both of the mildest and
the severest types, might be accompanied either by a rush of blood to
the head, with flushing of the skin, reddening of the eyes, and a
bursting sense of oppression in the head, or, on the other hand, by an
absolute draining of the whole floating surplus of the blood into the
so-called "abdominal pool," the huge network of vessels supplying the
digestive organs, which, when distended, will contain nearly two-thirds
of the entire blood of the body, leaving the face blanched, the eyes
white and staring, and the brain so nearly emptied of blood as to cause
loss of consciousness or swooning. Other headaches, again, will be
accompanied by a fresh, natural color and a perfectly normal and healthy
distribution of the blood-supply. In short, the amount of blood in the
head, whether plus or minus, has practically nothing to do with the
pain, but depends solely upon the effect of the poisons producing it
upon the heart and great blood-vessels.

A good illustration of the full-blooded type