Medicine: B1 for Tic

As exquisitely painful as the prolonged probing of a dentist's drill on a bare nerve is Tic Douloureux, or facial neuralgia, a disease which attacks the nerve tract of cheeks, mouth and tongue. Neuralgia spasms seldom last longer than two minutes, often twist a patient's face into a hideous grimace of agony. Usually persons over 40 years old are victims of the disease, and at first attacks may occur no more than twice a year. Later they return several times a day with increasing severity until sufferers long for death as the only relief from their pain.

A draft of cold air,...

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