The name is absent

Vitamin Bi             183

Although there is as yet no evidence that lack of thiamin
causes it, the excruciatingly painful facial neuralgia known as
“Tic douloureux” can usually be cured, at least temporarily,
by injections of thiamin over a period of several months;
sometimes liver extract, presumably to supply some other
member of the “B” family, is needed as well. Instances are
reported of elderly people with this disease being markedly
improved after having suffered for over twenty years.

The most recent use found for thiamin is in connection
with the treatment of syphilis of the nervous system. When
syphilis has reached this stage the only effective drug is
tryparsamide ; this is dangerous to use because of injurious
effects on the optic nerve, often leading to defects in vision
or even blindness. Patients treated with thiamin for a few
days before being given tryparsamide rarely suffer any
injury to the eyes. If this is confirmed on a larger series of
cases it may allow the use of tryparsamide in early syphilis
and thus prevent neuro-syphilis from developing at all.

One other possible relationship of thiamin is in connection
with virus diseases of the nervous system. In recent years
nerve diseases such as poliomyelitis and encephalitis have
become more prevalent than they used to be. Some people
have seen in this a result of the terrific speed of modern
life, the continuous round of hurry and worry, of jazz and
jitterbugs, of cocktail parties and night-club life. But after
all, our ancestors probably put in as much time worrying
about witches and superstitions as we do about business and
social prestige, and our predecessors who knew nothing of
dictation and typewriters probably used up as much nervous
energy, albeit more evenly distributed, as those of us who
burn up the road getting to an office only to decorate the
top of a desk with a pair of number eights while perusing
the morning paper. It is at least worthy of some serious

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