605 



DIAPHANOUS. 



DIARRHOEA. 



GOC 



or a mixture of the two, upon the face of which a figured pattern is 

 produced by a peculiar mode of twilling, or tweeling. Diapers,. which, 

 excepting damasks, are the most ornamental kind of twilled cloths, are 

 chiefly used for table-linen, fine towels, &c. 



" The word diaper," observes Mr. Planche", in his ' History of British 

 Costume/ " is derived by some writers from ' d'Ipres/ that is, ' of 

 Ypres,' a town in Flanders, famous for its manufactory of rich stuffs 

 and fine linen before the year 1200." " Ducange," he adds, " derives 

 it from the Italian ' diaspro," the jasper, which it resembles in its shifting 

 lights ; but the first is by far the most plausible conjecture ; and 

 though we read of diapers of Antioch, it is only because Ypres having 

 given its name to its peculiar manufacture, any similar cloth received 

 the same appellation." 



In decorative painting, and in the ornamenting of glass, the term 

 diapering is sometimes applied to a small delicate pattern introduced 

 to diminish the appearance of baldness where a considerable space is 

 covered with one colour, and thus to relieve the eye, without forming 

 any part of the main design. In heraldic painting, especially, it is 

 often resorted to, particularly where the juxtaposition of considerable 

 masses of black and white might prove unsightly; but in all such 

 cases it should be remembered that the diapering forms no part of 

 the heraldic bearing. 



DIAPHANOUS. [TRANSPARENCY]. 



DIAPHORETICS, or SUDORIFICS, are agents which increase the 

 natural exhalation of the skin, or restore it when suppressed. Nothing 

 better exemplifies the doctrine that remedies are only relative agents 

 than this class of medicines, as then- power to produce perspirations 

 depends invariably upon the state of the patient and the circumstances 

 in which he is placed, such as the temperature and humidity of the 

 air by which he is surrounded. Many medicines which cause a flow 

 of perspiration when the patient is kept warm, will produce, when he 

 is in a cool temperature, an increased action of the kidneys and an 

 augmented secretion of urine. 



Their effects as diaphoretics are attempted to be accounted for by 

 reference to two principles; 1, by increasing the action of the cuta- 

 neous vessels ; 2, by increasing the vascular action of the whole system. 

 Those diaphoretic remedies which seem to act according to the first 

 principle produce their effects either by external application, such as 

 the stimulus of heat, especially as proved by the hot-air bath, or as 

 medicinal substances which enter the circulation and stimulate the 

 cutaneous vessels by contact, such as mercurial preparations, some 

 saline diaphoretics, and, most markedly, sulphur, which is evidently 

 carried undecomposed to the cutaneous vessels and excreted by them ; 

 or, lastly, by acting on the surface sympathetically through the 

 medium of the stomach, such as warm drinks, antimonial prepara- 

 tions, Ac. 



Those diaphoretic agents which seem to act according to the second 

 principle are: violent muscular exercise, carbonate of ammonia, 

 guiacum, alcoholic stimulants, 4c. 



Diaphoretics are in general used to restore the cutaneous discharge 

 when, from the action of cold or wet upon the system, it has been 

 suppressed, and accordingly they are useful in common catarrh, rheu- 

 matism, or diarrhoea. proceeding from cold. They are likewise of great 

 service in fevers, the restoration of the secretion of the skin, if it be 

 warm and gentle, not cold and clammy, often proving critical, and the 

 precursor of recovery. In many cutaneous diseases diaphoretics are 

 valuable agents, and for this purpose baths, either the natural warm 

 baths or vapour baths, are used ; but in such diseases the perspiration 

 produced by exercise, or during a course of training, is decidedly the 

 best diaphoretic. Some forms of indigestion are relieved or cured by 

 causing, an increased action of the skin, to effect which exercise is 

 likewise the best agent. 



It is worthy of remark, that the profuse and wasting perspirations 

 which accompany the hectic of consumption are frequently more 

 effectually checked by diaphoretics, especially the compound ipecacuau 

 powder, than by any other means, except oxide of zinc. 

 (Young on Cutuum/tlioH.) 



DIARKHCEA (Sidpfroia), flux, looseness, purging, the frequent dis- 

 charge from the bowels of more limpid stools than natural. The most 

 obvious and common cause of this disease is the direct application of 

 gome stimulating substance to the inner or mucous surface of some 

 portion of the alimentary canal, as articles of food and drink of too 

 stimulating a quality, or, though wholesome in kind, taken in too large 

 a quantity. Undressed or indigestible vegetables, whether acid or 

 sweet, cucumbers, melons, mushrooms, different kinds of salads, fruits, 

 especially plums, stale and decayed vegetables, animal food approaching 

 to the putrescent state, as stale fish, high game, &c., contain matters 

 either not easily digested, or when digested of so stimulating a quality 

 an to irritate the mucous surface of the intestine, and to produce 

 diarrhoea. Water tainted with putrid vegetable or animal matters, or 

 loaded with certain kinds of living or dead animalcules, is no uncom- 

 mon cause of diarrhoea. When a great mixture of different kinds of 

 food and drink, in large quantities, though wholesome in kind, is taken 

 into the stomach at one meal, it often produces a sudden attack of 

 diarrhoea. Even a draught of cold water, beer, or milk, especially if 

 the individual be overheated at the time, will often almost immediately 

 occasion the same result. Soured or turned milk is a frequent source 

 of diarrhoea amongst children. Many medicines and poisons are sub- 



stances which prove directly and powerfully irritating to the stomach 

 and intestines. The large class of purgative medicines and the poisons 

 called irritants are of this kind. Purgative medicines, given in a certain 

 quantity and at certain intervals ascertained by experience, produce a 

 certain degree of diarrhoea, which the physician purposely excites for 

 the accomplishment of various objects. Given in very large doses, or 

 in ordinary doses when the system is in a state of peculiar irritability, 

 they sometimes occasion an excessive diarrhoea, which continues longer 

 than usual, and so produce that species of diarrhoea which is called 

 hypercatharsis. 



In the state of health various fluids are poured into the stomach and 

 alimentary canal for the purpose of dissolving the aliment and assisting 

 in its assimilation. To accomplish the purpose for which they are 

 secreted from the common mass of blood, these fluids must be in 

 certain quantity, and must possess a certain degree of stimulating 

 power. But in various states of the system, from being bland in their 

 sensible properties, and only moderately stimulating in physiological 

 action, they become greatly increased in quantity, and highly irritating 

 in quality. Of these fluids the principal are the gastric, the intestinal, 

 the pancreatic, and the biliary. The secretion of the gastric juice may 

 be altered in quantity and quality, in consequence of which it may be 

 incapable of properly dissolving the aliment, which therefore may be 

 sent from the stomach into the intestines in an acrid and irritating 

 state, and so produce diarrhoea. The pancreatic juice may also be 

 altered in quantity and quality, and become highly irritating ; and the 

 bile is sometimes poured out in greater quantity than usual, and of a 

 more than ordinary acrid quality, and iu botli ways is a frequent cause 

 of diarrhoea. Moreover, the entire surface of the stomach and intestines 

 is crowded with secreting organs, mucous follicles, from which a quan- 

 tity of fluid is constantly poured out, constituting the chief portion of 

 the evacuations passed when little or no food has been taken, and which 

 probably also affords the principal part of the matter of the liquid stools 

 that occur in diarrhoea. In many states of the system, and from nume- 

 rous irritating substances applied to their surfaces, the secretion of these 

 bodies becomes excessive in degree, and highly acrid and irritating in 

 its nature. 



The quantity of matter from this source may be indefinitely increased 

 by whatever is capable of occasioning a greater efflux of blood than 

 natural to the mucous surface of the alimentary canal. Hence it may 

 be superinduced by all the other causes of diarrhoea indigestible food, 

 wholesome food in too large a quantity, disordered states of the diges- 

 tive fluids, Ac., and from increased afliux of fluids from other parts of 

 the system, as from cold applied to the surface of the body and sup- 

 pressing perspiration, which may determine a greater quantity of fluids 

 to the intestines. Great alternations of temperature will, in many 

 constitutions, produce the same result. Suppressed evacuations, 

 checked menstruation, the retrocession of eruptive diseases, as measles, 

 scarlatina, &c., are often immediately followed by diarrhoea. Even 

 mental emotion is capable of producing it in some irritable and nervous 

 constitutions to a great degree ; and when under the influence of such 

 emotions, the slightest excess in food or drink, or the slightest quantity 

 of irritating aliment, will be succeeded by numerous and liquid stools. 

 Irritation in a distant part of the body often induces increased action 

 of the intestines, and occasionally diarrhoea, as the irritation of the gum 

 in dentition. The mucous surface of the whole alimentary canal is 

 highly sensitive and irritable in infants and children, and food improper 

 in quantity or quality is exceedingly apt to induce diarrhoea in them, 

 and if the irritation in the stomach and intestines from this cause be 

 kept up long, irreparable and fatal disease is sure to be induced. Slight 

 errors in diet on the part of the mother, and even an irritable state of 

 mind, will disorder her milk to such a degree as to produce distressing 

 diarrhoea in her infant. The excitability of the capillary arteries, the 

 mobility of the muscular fibres, and the sensibility of the whole nervous 

 system during the early periods of life, render the young much more 

 susceptible to all the causes of diarrhoea than the adolescent and the 

 adult; and the more tender the age the greater this susceptibility. 



By whatever cause diarrhoea may be excited, it is seldom that the 

 increased discharge of liquid stools from the intestines is the only 

 symptom present. It is commonly preceded by nausea, and in general 

 more or less uneasiness is felt in the stomach and intestines, which 

 sometimes amounts to severe griping pain, often accompanied with 

 flatulence. In severe cases the abdomen is distended, and even tender 

 to the touch ; the nausea passes into vomiting ; and the pain, espe- 

 cially around the navel or in the course of the colon, becomes intense, 

 somewhat relieved, perhaps, after each evacuation, but soon returning 

 with undiruinished severity. The number of evacuations may vary 

 from three or four to twenty or thirty in the twenty-four hours. Of 

 course the sudden loss of so large a portion of the more fluid part of 

 the blood as is contained in these watery evacuations deprives the 

 system of a proportionate quantity of stimulating and nutritive matter, 

 and accordingly there is often great prostration of strength, and a 

 striking expression in the countenance and attitude of languor and 

 debility. In slight cases the pulse is little if at all affected ; but when 

 the pain is severe and the discharge copious, the pulse is quickened, 

 and at an advanced stage of the attack is generally small, weak, and 

 much increased in frequency. The tongue is loaded, and iu certain 

 forms of the disease is intensely red at the edges and tip, and the 

 papilloo are large, prominent, and of a bright red colour, shining 



