Editing Nerve (section)

==History==
{{see|History of neurology and neurosurgery}}
[[Herophilos]] (335–280 BC) described the functions of the [[optic nerve]] in sight and the [[oculomotor nerve]] in eye movement. Analysis of the nerves in the [[cranium]] enabled him to differentiate between [[blood vessel]]s and nerves ({{langx|grc|[[wiktionary:νεῦρον|νεῦρον (neûron)]]}} "string, plant fiber, nerve").

Modern research has not confirmed [[William Cullen]]'s 1785 hypothesis associating mental states with physical nerves,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Pickering
 |first1               = Neil
 |year                 = 2006
 |title                = The Metaphor of Mental Illness
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=9JnuZHxvHykC
 |series               = International perspectives in philosophy and psychiatry
 |publisher            = Oxford University Press
 |page                 = 99
 |isbn                 = 9780198530879
 |access-date          = 27 May 2023
 |quote                = [...] William Cullen [...] as early as 1785 [...] postulated that certain mental disorders were the result of some unknown physical change in the nerves, for which he coined the term neurosis. This term has since quite altered its meaning, as it now refers not to a state of the nerves but to a nervous state.
}}
</ref> although popular or lay medicine may still invoke "nerves" in diagnosing or blaming any sort of [[psychological]] worry or hesitancy, as in the common traditional phrases "my poor nerves",<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Austen
 |first1               = Jane
 |author-link1         = Jane Austen
 |editor-last1         = Spacks
 |editor-first1        = Patricia Meyer
 |editor-link1         = Patricia Meyer Spacks
 |year                 = 2010
 |orig-date            = 1813
 |title                = Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition
 | url                 = https://books.google.com/books?id=1m9b-G7csR0C
 |location             = Cambridge, Massachusetts
 |publisher            = Harvard University Press
 |page                 = 32
 |isbn                 = 9780674049161
 |access-date          = 27 May 2023
 |quote                = 'Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion on my poor nerves.' [...] 'You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.'
}} 
</ref>
"{{linktext|high-strung}}", and "[[nervous breakdown]]".<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Pickering
 |first1               = Neil
 |year                 = 2006
 |title                = The Metaphor of Mental Illness
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=9JnuZHxvHykC
 |series               = International perspectives in philosophy and psychiatry
 |publisher            = Oxford University Press
 |page                 = 1
 |isbn                 = 9780198530879
 |access-date          = 27 May 2023
 |quote                = [...] in everyday English we find [...] lay terms such as 'nervous breakdown' that relate to mental illness as a whole [...]
}}
</ref>