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DYSPEPSIA. 



DYSPEPSIA. 



718 



UM depressing effects of cold Hem to be peculiarly inanifmUxl iu the 

 Mm* of the stomach. Excessive discharges from the body, u flood- 

 ing, leucorrhoea, large bleeding* from the inn, profuse and long-con- 

 tinued sweating, and above all protracted suckling. It is a common 

 practice among the poor in this country to suckle their children too 

 long. A feeble woman U often seen with a strong child at her breast 

 a year and a-half or two years old. The effect upon the constitution 

 of the mother is most pernicious. Emaciation, sharpness of the fea- 

 tures, with a peculiar expression in the countenance of languor and 

 exhaustion, a sense of sinking at the pit of the stomach, dimness of 

 sight, giddiness, spectra of different kinds dancing before the eyes, 

 headache, with a small, quick, and sometimes almost imperceptible 

 pulse, and total loss of appetite, are the peculiar characters of this 

 variety of dyspepsia. 



The state of dyspepsia is moot frequently a state merely of dis- 

 ordered function, without any appreciable change of structure in any 

 of the tissues of the stomach. But all the symptoms of dyspepsia are 

 produced in their intensest degree when they arise from some organic 

 diimssn of the stomach. Of these the most frequent is inflamma- 

 tion of its mucous coat. This inflammation may be either acute or 

 subacute. When acute, the nature of the malady ix indicated by 

 characten so striking that it cannot be overlooked ; but the subacute 

 form often exists for a long period quite unsuspected, producing 

 violent and obstinate dyspepsia, which is often greatly aggravated by 

 the remedies employed to remove the complaint. The diagnostic sign 

 of this form of the disease is tenderness on pressure in the epigastric 

 region. In scirrhusof the pylorus and ulceration of the mucous glands 

 of the stomach, organic disease not of unfrequent occurrence, there U 

 superadded to the ordinary signs of dyspepsia a peculiar train of 

 symptoms scarcely to be overlooked or mistaken. 



But dyspepsia is often the result of disease situated not in the 



stomach, but in nouie other orgau. The stomach has. been justly 

 called the centre of sympathies, and there is scarcely any disorder of 

 the body which does not affect the function* of the stomach in a 

 greater or leas degree. The organs the diseases of which are most apt 

 to produce disorder of the stomach, are the liver, the spleen, the 

 uterus, the kidney, the bronchi, and the akin. In this secondary form 



i of dyspepsia, the disease cannot be removed unless the seat <>t~ tlir 



primary affection, and the true nature of that affection, be ascertained. 



The stomach is the organ in which chymification is effected. 



Chylification is accomplished in the duodenum, and completed in the 



jejunum, ilium, and mesenteric glands ; and the highly important 



part of the digestive process, that which consists in eliminating and 



I carrying out of the system the non-nutrient portion of the aliment, 

 is performed by the large intestines. Each of these organs may be the 



j primary seat of disease, giving rise to the ordinary symptoms of 

 dyspepsia ; but to these there will generally be superadded peculiar 

 signs pointing out the real seat of the malady, signs almost always to 

 be observed if carefully looked for, and the detection of which is of 

 the utmost importance in the treatment of the disease. 



The indications of cure are to avoid or remove the remote 

 causes, to remove the symptoms which especially contribute to 

 aggravate and continue the disease, and to restore the healthy 

 tone of the disordered organs. There is no drug, no class of 

 medicines, no one mode of treatment capable of removing dyspepsia 

 when present, or of preventing its recurrence. This can only be 

 done by a careful study of the exact cause of the disease in every 

 individual case, and the precise seat ami nature of the affection. 

 The mode of treatment must be modified in strict accordance with 

 these circumstances ; and no mode of treatment will be attended with 

 success of which the appropriate regulation of the diet and exercise 

 does not form an essential part. [STOMACH, DISEASES OF.] 



