For the attacks of pain, if general, a prolonged hot bath lasting from ten to twelve minutes, at a temperature of 100° F. or even more, should be first tried; if this fail, antipyrin, phenacetin, acetanilid, or cannabis indica may be used, or, as a last resort, morphia. For the local pains hot water is also useful, and in the intervals I order applications of hot water to the tender points, as hot as can be borne, alternating with ice-water, each rapidly applied three or four times. In severe attacks, and with all due caution to avoid habituation, cocaine injections may be given. In cases with high arterial tension the daily administration of nitroglycerin in full doses will not only lower the tension but decrease the pains in force and frequency.
For several years past in all patients with the general lowering of nervous force and vitality so common in this disease I have habitually used the testicular elixir of Brown-Séquard. The ridiculous length to which organic therapeutics have been carried, the extravagant advertising claims, and an absurd expectation of impossible results have combined to make the profession shy of those organic preparations which have not very good evidence in their favor, and for some time I shared in this prejudice against the Brown-Séquard fluid. A talk with that most distinguished physician and an examination of some of his cases led me to a trial for myself, and I am at present very well convinced that, whether a physiologic basis can reasonably be assumed or not, we have in the fluid a tonic remedy of great power. While I have used it with good effect in other conditions, it is in ataxia that I have found it of most value.
The glycerin extract is freshly prepared from bulls' testicles in exact accordance with the directions of the discoverer. It is used hypodermatically every other day, beginning with a diluted ten-minim dose and increasing by two or three drops up to about forty minims. The effect is at its height twelve to twenty-four hours after the administration in most patients, hence the reason for using it only once in two days. The skin is prepared, the needles and syringe disinfected, and the tiny puncture sealed afterwards with as minute care as would be given to a surgical operation. By these precautions the danger of abscess, always considerable if hypodermics are carelessly given, is minimized. As the dose is large, a site must be selected for the injection where the tissue is loose, otherwise the pain will interfere with the desired frequency of use. The buttocks serve best, or the outer masses of the pectoral muscles, or the abdominal muscles. If the administration causes pain (due in part to the large quantity used and in part to the local effect of glycerin), a fraction of a grain of cocaine may be added to the solution when measured out for use.