Neurologic practice

“’Cerebral hyperaemia’ [excess blood circulating in brain], in particular, furnished the rationale for a huge portion of the neurologist’s practice. In this respect it was very similar to ‘neurasthenia’ [a diagnosis that Hammond rejected] (Blustein, II, 153). Insomnia was the crucial symptom of cerebral hyperaemia, which fell to persons who overstrained their brains: “The only direct evidence Hammond had to define the pathology he suggested for cerebral hyperaemia was ‘the redness of the face, and throbbing of the cephalic arteries’ and ‘the sensation of fullness of the head.’ Hammond also cited the ‘persistent insomnia always present’ as evidence that cerebral circulation was disturbed, but here the argument was dangerously close to circularity” (157).