296 ElJhts of the while O.ride of Bismuth 



patient to exceed fifty-five years ; and, as the patient whose case 

 I am about to relate, had, for a long period of years been 

 afflicted with distressing pains of the stomach, was past 

 seventy when the treatment was first commenced, and when 

 the symptoms were so violent as justly to excite a suspicion of 

 much organic mischief about the stomach, I am induced to be- 

 lieve that a detail of it will add considerably to the good 

 opinion entertained of the bismuth ; and will contribute to diff'use 

 still wider the benefits to be derived from an exhibition of this 

 valuable medicine. I am aware that the result of the operation of 

 a medicine in an individual case can prove nothing decisively of 

 its good effects ; but, when such individual statement comes in 

 confirmation of many other cases, it must have its weight in the 

 recommendation of the adoption of a medicine not previously 

 very generally resorted to. In this point of view, therefore, 

 I trust the perusal of the following case will not be without its 

 utility. 



January 21, 1816. P C , Esq., ajt. 71, com- 

 plained, at the beginning of winter, of pain about the pit of 

 the stomach, attended with much eructation of wind, and cos- 

 tiveness. The appetite is rather deficient, but it varies ; it is 

 not accompanied by any morbid thirst ; the tongue is foul ; 

 pulse full, slow, and soft ; a wasting of the flesh has taken 

 place ; the urine is of the natural colour and quantity ; there is 

 nothing remarkable in the colour of the feeces. No uneasiness 

 is complained of by pressure on the epigastric region. The 

 pain is troublesome at various times during the day, but is 

 most distressing between ten and eleven o'clock at night, when 

 it comes on with intolerable violence, and to such an extent, 

 as to cause vomiting, when the matters thrown up are very 

 liquid, great in quantity, and extremely acid ; some relief 

 from pain is then obtained. Sometimes the pain returns in the 

 night, so as to destroy rest. It occasionally shoots to the 

 back, and produces a slight dyspnaea for a short time. The 

 pain is not brought on immediately upon taking food, but he 

 describes it as occurring about three hours after meals, by a 

 kind of fermentation, and a sensation of weight, as if the food 



