Neuralgia and the diseases that resemble it

The volume treats neuralgia as a distinct clinical entity, beginning with a general analysis of pain that argues pain is a pathological perturbation rather than simple sensory hyperaesthesia. It surveys the clinical history, complications, pathology, etiology, prognosis, and treatment of neuralgia, and then presents concise, comparative sketches of disorders that commonly mimic it — including myalgia, spinal irritation, hypochondriacal pains, locomotor ataxy, cerebral abscess, alcoholism, syphilis, rheumatism, gout, colic, and dyspeptic headache — to clarify differential diagnosis and guide therapeutic decisions.