Treatment.  Preventive.—­A person who has once had neuritis must exercise all care to keep from taking cold or exposing themselves to severe cold winds and storms.  Wet clothing will be apt to cause its return.  Damp houses are bad.  The climate should be dry and not changeable.  There should be enough and proper kind of clothing to keep the body heat at the normal point.  Plenty of rest and sleep are required.  These cautions also apply to rheumatism and neuralgias.

Multiple Neuritis.—­Other names:  Polyneuritis, Disseminated Neuritis, Peripheral Neuritis.  Meaning—­Multiple neuritis is an inflammatory disease of the peripheral (toward the end of the nerves or external nerves) nervous system.  It varies much in extent and intensity and affects symmetrical parts of the body.

Varieties.—­These arise from differences in the nature, causes, severity and location of the disease process.

Causes.—­They are many. (1.) The poison that comes from infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, diphtheria, smallpox, leprosy, la grippe, etc. (2) From poisons such as alcohol, lead, arsenic; phosphorus, mercury, coal gas, etc. (3) From anemia, cancer, tuberculosis, syphilis, septicemia, diabetes. (4) From cold, over-exertion, etc.

Symptoms.—­Acute febrile multiple neuritis.  A typical case:  This comes on from exposure to cold, over-exertion, or in some cases spontaneously.  There are chills, headaches, pains in the back, limbs and joints, and the case may be called rheumatism.  Loss of appetite, coated tongue, constipation, and other symptoms of stomach and bowel trouble.  The temperature rises rapidly, and may go to 103 to 104 degrees.  The limbs and back ache, but intense pain in the nerves are not always constant.  The pain is usually sharp, severe, and located in the limbs, and is worse from moving and pressure.  There are tingling feelings in the hands, feet and body, and a feeling as if ants or insects were crawling over them, and there is also increased sensitiveness of the nerve trunks or entire limb.  There is loss of muscular power, first marked, perhaps, in the legs, and it extends upwards and reaches the arms.  Sometimes it first begins in the arms.  In typical cases the extending muscles of the wrist and ankles drop.  (Wristdrop and foot-drop).  In severe cases there is a general loss of muscular power, producing a flabby paralysis.  This may extend to the muscles that control speaking, swallowing and hearing resulting in impairment of these functions.  The muscles soften and waste away rapidly.  Disorders of nutrition are frequent, like watery swelling (oedema), glossy looking skin, sweating, hives, etc.

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