416 



STOMACH-PUMP STONE. 



haling and inhaling vessels, and mucus. These coats 

 are connected together by cellular membrane. The 

 glands of the stomach which separate the mucus 

 nn- situated between the villous and muscular coat, 

 i:i the cellular structure. The nerves of the sto- 

 mach are very numerous, and come from the eighth 

 pair and intercostal nerves. The lymphatic vessels 

 arc distributed throughout the whole substance, and 

 proceed immediately to the thoracic duct. The use 

 of the stomach is to excite hunger, and partly thirst, 

 to receive the food from the oesophagus, and to retain 

 it, till, by the motion of the stomach, the admix- 

 ture of various fluids, and many other changes, it is 

 rendered fit to pass the right orifice of the stomach 

 and afford chyle to the intestines. See Gastric 

 Juice, Digestion, Dyspepsia. 



STOMACH-PUMP. A small pump in this 

 application called the stomach-pump has lately 

 been introduced into practice, for removing poisons 

 from the stomach in cases where the action of 

 vomiting cannot be excited. It has already 

 saved many lives. It resembles the common small 

 syringe, except that there are two apertures 

 near the end, instead of one, which, owing to 

 valves in them, opening different ways, become 

 what are called a sucking and a forcing passage. 

 When the object is to extract from the stomach, 

 the pump is worked while its sucking orifice is in 

 connexion with an elastic tube passed into the sto- 

 mach ; and the discharged matter escapes by the 

 forcing orifice. When it is desired, on the con- 

 trary, to throw cleansing water or other liquid into 

 the stomach, the connexion of the apertures and the 

 tubes is reversed. As a pump may not be always 

 procurable when the occasion for it arises, the pro- 

 fession should be aware, that a simple tube will, in 

 many cases, answer the purpose as well, if not bet- 

 ter. If the tube be introduced, and the body of 

 the patient be so placed that the tube forms a 

 downward channel from the stomach, all fluid mat- 

 ter will escape from the stomach by it, as water 

 escapes from a funnel by its pipe ; and if the outer 

 end of the tube be immersed in liquid, there will be, 

 during the discharge, a siphon action of considera- 

 ble force. On changing the posture of the body, 

 water may be poured in through the same tube to 

 wash the stomach. Such a tube, made long enough, 

 might, if desired, be rendered a complete bent siphon, 

 the necessary preliminary suction being made by a 

 syringe, or by the mouth through an intervening 

 vessel. 



STOMACH-STAGGERS ; a dangerous disease 

 with horses, which is even yet but little understood. 

 In the stable, the horse dozes, and rests his head in 

 the manger ; he then wakes up, and falls to eating, 

 which he continues to do until the distention of the 

 stomach becomes enormous ; for the peculiarity of 

 the complaint consists in the total stoppage of di- 

 gestion, and the uneasy feeling of distention, conse- 

 quent to such indigestion, appears to deceive the 

 horse, whose morbid excitement induces him to con- 

 tinue eating. This he does until the distention pre- 

 vents the return of the blood from the head ; and 

 the animal dies from apoplexy, or his stomach bursts. 

 When recovery has taken place, it has been only 

 in very mild cases. 



m STONE, OE CALCULUS; every hard concre- 

 tion, not bony, formed in the body of animals. The 

 article Calculus treats of the variety and chemical 

 composition of these concretions. We shall add 

 here a few words respecting their probable origin, 

 wid the cure of this disease in man. These coiicre- 



originate immediately in a disturbance of the 

 secretions ; but this disturbance may, perhaps, in 

 most cases, be caused by a disordered condition of 

 the juices, particularly of the blood, and a want of 

 due assimilation. This may be supposed, because, 

 in the complaints of the gravel and the gout, which 

 frequently interchange, the digestion almost always 

 suffers, and acid is found in the primse VISE ; also, 

 because cattle often have biliary calculi in the spring, 

 which disappear after they have fed for a time on 

 green fodder. Calculi form themselves in thos 

 secreted fluids which contain many ingredients, and 

 which have an inclination to assume a solid form, 

 especially in such as are collected in particular re- 

 ceptacles (the gall bladder and urinary bladder) ; 

 and they have even been found in the salivary ducts. 

 They consist of a nucleus and several surrounding 

 coats similar or various in their nature. Their 

 component parts vary according to the fluid in which 

 they have been formed. They obstruct the pas- 

 sages, and prevent the discharge of the secreted 

 fluid ; they irritate the vessels in which they are 

 contained, and thereby cause convulsions, pains, in- 

 flammations and suppurations ; they also affect, 

 indirectly, other organs, e. g. the stomach, produc- 

 ing sickness and vomiting; the stones in the blad- 

 der occasion itching in the glands of the genitals, 

 pains in the loins, testicles, &c. The most common 

 calculi are, A. biliary calculi, often found jn great 

 numbers in the bile, sometimes in the liver, from 

 the size of a pea to that of a hazel-nut. They are 

 dark, brown, black, and usually polished on several 

 parts of the surface, and generally occasion disease 

 only when they move, and are very jagged. But 

 in such cases violent pains exist, which extend from 

 the right side to the centre of the body. They 

 also sometimes cause periodical and obstinate jaun- 

 dice. The convulsions and pains which they occa- 

 sion frequently require the application of particular 

 medicines to relieve the immediate suffering, be- 

 sides those directed against the disease itself; the 

 patient is often relieved from them by vomiting or 

 by stool. B. Urinary calculi are sometimes a kind 

 of coarse sand, called gravel, which sinks imme- 

 diately to the bottom of the vessel in which the 

 urine is left. Sometimes they are real stones, of 

 the size of a pea, of a walnut, or even of the fist. 

 They are found either about the kidneys, and then 

 cause pains, inflammations, and suppuration, or in 

 the pelvis of the kidneys. In this case, from 

 time to time, single stones pass into the bladder, 

 with violent pains extending from the region of 

 the kidneys downward or backward, and are car- 

 ried off with the urine; or they originate in the 

 bladder itself, where they often acquire a very con- 

 siderable size. They cause pains in the region of 

 the bladder and in the perineum, and great suffering 

 during the discharges of the urine. It often hap- 

 pens that this can be discharged only in certain 

 positions, and drop by drop, with great pain; is 

 slimy, smells offensively, and is mixed with blood 

 and gravel. The examination by the catheter af- 

 fords the most certain information respecting the 

 existence of calculi, if, as sometimes happens, the 

 stone does not lie enclosed (encysted) in a certain 

 part of the bladder. To destroy urinary stones, 

 internal means have been recommended; but they 

 are little to be depended on. If the stone in the 

 bladder increases so much that it prevents entirely 

 the discharge of the urine, it is necessary to remove 

 it by the knife (lithotomy), or by breaking it to 

 pieces in the bladder (lithotrity). The operation 



