Treatment. — The  treatment  of  neuralgia  consists,  first,  in  the  relief  of
the  symptom,  pain,  and,  secondly,  in  the  removal  of  its  cause,  i.  e.  in  the
restoration  of  normal  conditions  of  function  in  the  sensory  apparatus.  The
means  by  which  these  ends  are  to-be  secured  are  threefold — by  hygiene,  by
drugs,  given  internally  and  applied  externally,  and  by  certain  surgical  oper-
ations on  the  nerves.  It  is  evident  that  the  treatment  to  be  adopted  must  be
influenced,  to  some  extent,  by  the  nature  of  the  case.  When  there  is  dis-
tinct evidence  of  neuritis,  the  treatment  for  this,  already  described,  must  be
adopted.  The  treatment  now  to  be  considered  is  that  of  the  "idiopathic"
form,  but  the  means  for  the  alleviation  of  all  forms  is  nearly  the  same.
Although  the  relief  of  pain  has  usually  to  be  the  first  actual  step  in  treat-
ment, the  first  in  importance  is  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  the  disease.
Any  discoverable  condition  on  which  the  neuralgia  may  depend  must  be
treated.  The  detailed  measures  that  are  necessary  need  not  here  be  indi-
cated, since  they  are  sufficiently  suggested  by  the  enumeration  of  the  causes
and  causal  varieties  already  given.     Especially  should  any  source  of  nerve


1160  NEURALGIA.
