DYSENTERY DYSPEPSIA. 



763 



hours under a great disadvantage in the scarcity of 

 good fresh water. 



Dysart, so early as 1546, was det med one of the 

 principal commercial towns in Fife, and about that 

 period was erected into a royal burgh. On account 

 of its trade it received the popular name of " Little 

 Holland." Though its revenue is comparatively 

 trifling, a liberal income is allowed by the town-coun- 

 cil in support of a public grammar-school. An an- 

 cient chapel, once belonging to the priory of St 

 Denis, has been converted into a forge. The parish, 

 which is bounded on the north-east by the river Ore, 

 comprises 3054 acres, and includes several villages; 

 the chief of these are Sinclairtown, Borland, Gala- 

 town, and Pathhead, in each of which are extensive 

 manufactures of iron, especially of nails. Near the 

 latter place is Raven's Craig, an old castle belonging 

 to the St C lairs. Besides the valuable productions 

 of coal and iron, freestone and limestone abound in 

 various parts of the parish. Population of burgh and 

 parish in 1831, 7105. 



DYSENTERY (dysenteria; from In;, difficulty, 

 and Tt{, the bowels) ; the flux. It is known by 

 contagious fever ; frequent griping stools ; tenesmus ; 

 stools, chiefly mucous, sometimes mixed with blood, 

 the natural faeces being retained, or voided in small, 

 compact, hard substances, known by the name of 

 scybala ; by loss of appetite, and nausea. It occurs 

 chiefly in summer and autumn, and is often occasioned 

 by much moisture succeeding quickly intense heat or 

 great drought ; whereby the perspiration is suddenly 

 checked, and a determination made to the intestines. 

 It is likewise occasioned by the use of unwholesome 

 and putrid food, and by noxious exhalations and 

 vapours ; hence it appears often in armies encamped 

 in the neighbourhood of low, marshy grounds, and 

 proves highly destructive ; but the cause which most 

 usually gives rise to it, is a specific contagion ; and 

 when it once makes its ppearance, where numbers of 

 people are collected together, it not unfrequently 

 spreads with great rapidity. A peculiar disposition 

 in the atmosphere seems often to predispose or give 

 rise to the dysentery, in which case it prevails epide- 

 mically. It frequently occurs about the same time 

 with autumnal intermittent and remittent fevers ; and 

 with these it is often complicated. The disease, how- 

 ever, is much more prevalent in warm climates than 

 in cold ones ; and, in the months of August, Septem- 

 ber and October, which is the rainy season of the 

 year in the West Indies, it is very apt to break out, 

 and to become very general among the negroes on 

 the different plantations in the colonies. The body 

 having been rendered irritable by the great heat of 

 the summer, and being exposed suddenly to much 

 moisture with open pores, the blood is thereby 

 thrown from the exterior vessels upon the interior, so 

 as to give rise to dysenteries. 



An attack of dysentery is sometimes preceded by a 

 loss of appetite, costiveness, flatulency, sickness at 

 the stomach, and a slight vomiting; and comes on with 

 chills, succeeded by heat in the skin, and frequency 

 of the pulse. These symptoms are in general the 

 forerunners of the griping and increased evacuations 

 which afterwards occur. More or less fever usually 

 attends, with the symptoms which have been des- 

 cribed, throughout the whole of the disease, where it 

 is inclined to terminate fatally ; and is either of an 

 inflammatory or putrid tendency. In other cases, 

 the febrile state wholly disappears after a time, while 

 the proper dysenteric symptoms probably will be of 

 long continuance. Hence the distinction into acute 

 and chronic dysentery. When the symptoms run 

 high, produce great loss of strength, and are accom- 

 panipd with a putrid tendency ami a fetid and invol- 

 untary discharge, the disease often terminates fatally 



in the course of a few days ; but when they are more 

 moderate, it is often protracted to a considerable 

 length of time, and so goes oft' at last by a gentle 

 perspiration, diffused equally over the whole body ; 

 the fever, thirst and griping then ceasing, and the 

 stools becoming of a natural colour and consistence. 

 When the disease is of long standing, and has become 

 habitual, it seldom admits of an easy cure ; and 

 when it attacks a person labouring under an ad- 

 vanced stage of scurvy, or pulmonary consumption, 

 or whose constitution has been much impaired by 

 any other disorder, it is sure to prove fatal. It 

 sometimes appears at the same time with autumnal 

 intermittent and remittent fevers, as has been ob- 

 served, and is then more complicated and difficult to 

 remove. Upon opening the bodies of those who die 

 of dysentery, the internal coat of the intestines (but 

 more particularly of the colon and rectum) appears 

 to be affected with inflammation, and its consequences, 

 such as ulceration, gangrene and contractions. The 

 peritonaeum, and other coverings of the abdomen, 

 seem likewise, in many instances, to be affected by 

 inflammation. 



DYSPEPSIA C&uffxi-tm, from "bus, bad, and fi-^n, 

 digestion) ; difficulty of digestion. The strict etymo- 

 logy of the term implies an imperfect or disordered 

 condition of the function of digestion. Systematic 

 writers have been not a little perplexed to find an 

 appropriate location for this affection in their artifi- 

 cial arrangements ; and this difficulty must exist 

 whilst symptoms, which are always fluctuating, are 

 admitted, as the elements of nomenclature and ar- 

 rangement, into systems of nosology. From the 

 same circumstance, different symptoms of the affec- 

 tion have received the character of separate diseases 

 as apepsia, bradypepsia (SjaSt/j, slow), anorexia, car- 

 dialgia, &c. These are no more than different grades 

 in the symptoms, or varieties of the affection, and 

 are not different diseases. The disorder of the dig- 

 estive function is the most frequent and prevailing of 

 the ailments that afflict man in the civilized state ; all 

 classes and all ages suffer from its attacks. Few are 

 so happy as to pass through a life of ordinary dura- 

 tion, without undergoing a protracted struggle with 

 this malady, and experiencing its torments. Once 

 let it be fully established, and the comfort of exis- 

 tence disappears, or is regained, in most cases, tedi- 

 ously, and at the price of the most ascetic self-denial. 

 The greater prevalence of dyspepsia or indigestion, 

 in modern times, arises from the more frequent in- 

 jury done to the stomach and its functions, directly, 

 by the habits of luxurious indulgence, which have 

 been exceedingly increased and extended ; and, indi- 

 rectly, by the multiplication of intellectual and moral 

 agitations, from the extension of the commercial and 

 financial operations of society, the greater activity 

 and employment of the intellectual faculties, and 

 augmentation of political, social, and individual 

 reverses. Something, too, is to be ascribed to the 

 mere change of names. We call that dyspepsia now, 

 which, formerly, was termed liver disease, bilious dis- 

 order, &c. A large proportion of the discomfort 

 produced by this malady, arises from an ignorance 

 of the digestive functions, leading to their abuse and 

 premature derangement, and may be obviated, to a 

 great extent, by instruction as to the nature of these 

 tunctions, and their natural exercise. A general 

 view of the digestive organs and functions is, there- 

 fore, requisite to an understanding of their disorder?, 

 the means to prevent, and the methods to remedy 

 them. 



All organized or animated beings hold their exis- 

 tence under the condition of renewing, incessantly, 

 the elements of their composition, by the appropria - 

 tioo to themselves of exterior matters. The simple 



