Medical Premium of Fifty Guineas, 89 



Z. of seventv-two years of age, of uniformly temperate and 

 active habits, and of health in general good, though not robust, 

 was afflicted twentv years ago witli the jaundk'e arising from 

 gallstones which have not since troubled him ; and three years 

 ago, with a hernia hiimniaUs,\v]w\\ suppurated, and left the pa- 

 tient consideral>iv dfl)ilitated. Some time after this disease, 

 his stomai'li l)ecame disordered, and has ever since been liable 

 to loss of appetite, extreme flatulency, and frequent vomiting. 

 This vomiting has usually occurred at night, about eight or ten 

 hours after ditmer. Sometimes, but rarely, food was ejected 

 from the stomach. In general a bitter fluid, resembling bile, 

 was thrown up The violence of these symptoms som.etimes in- 

 termitted for three or four weeks, and then returned again, as if 

 from some noxious accumulation in the stomach. 



Of course the patient was weakened and somewhat emaciated 

 by the continuance of this disease; but his spirits, and the activity 

 of his mind, have at no time been depressed. Every article of 

 diet that is considered as flatulent had been at different times 

 sedulously excluded. Animal and vegetable food have been tried 

 alternately and in conjunction. Abstinence from wine, and from 

 all fermented liquors, has also been tried; and these trials have 

 been made with care by a person used to experiment, and whose 

 appetite isentirelvsubservient to control; and from repeated trials, 

 he has found notliing which has appeared peculiarly obnoxious 

 to his stomach, but fried fat, and the skinny or sinewy parts 

 of meat, and the acetous acid. 



At different times, wine of all sorts, and malt liquor, have 

 been disagreeable to him. At other times. Port \v\\\q, mixed 

 with twice the quantitv of water, ha? been his bever;;ge at din- 

 ner, with sometimes one, or at most two small glasses of Port 

 wine after dinner. But malt liquor, viz. small beer of a good 

 quality, has seemed to agree with him better than any other li- 

 quid. Water, which in his neighbourhood is excellent, has not 

 been found salutary — for whether water, beer, or wine, or meat, 

 or vegetables, or simple puddings, or roasted apples, made part 

 of his diet, the same inordinate flatulency and sometimes subse- 

 quent vomiting have recurred. It is to l)e observed, the acidity 

 which usually attends common indigestion has not been a sym- 

 ptom in this disease. 



The bowels have in general been kept in a proper state by a 

 small quantity of aloes taken in the form of Darwin's dinner 

 pills, which has never produced any constriction nor any excess. 



Various remedies have been proposed by the medical friends 

 of the patient, who is happily knov.ii to n)any men of n.cdical 

 eminence. Opium, bitters, alkalies have been tried; but every 

 kind of drug 6cems to have been ineffectual. Indued the patient, 



tliOUgU 



