SYMPTOMS OF DISEASES. 



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DIAERHCEA, OR LOOSENESS OP THE BOWELS.— A dis. 

 ease consisting of more frequent and liquid evacuations by stool than usual, 

 with griping and occasional vomiting. It is distinguished from dysentery by 

 the absence of painful and ineffectual straining, and by the stools not consis^ 

 ing of blood and mucus. 



Causes.— Tha causes of diarrhoea are many and various. 1. Cold applied 

 to the whole body is not an unf requent cause, and cold applied to the feet 

 alone, in very many cases, produces diarrhoea. 2. Diseases of other parts of 

 the body give rise to diarrhoea, as happens to infants while teething, and to 

 persons who have a paroxysm of gout. 3. Certain emotions of tlie mind, par- 

 ticularly fear, are known to cause diarrhoea. 4. Certain articles of food taken 

 into the stomach produce looseness. 5. Certain secretions of the body itself 

 poured into the intestines, cause a laxity of them. In this way, heat is prob- 

 ably a cause of diarrhoea by first stimulating the liver; the increased secretion 

 from which excites that from the small intestines, and looseness is the result. 



Looseness should not be rashly checked. From the great variety of causes 

 inducing diarrhoea, Jt must be obvious that it would be impossible to lay down 

 any plan of cure that would apply to all cases, and it is often a matter of doubt 

 whether it should be meddled with at all; thus, when from a surfeit, either in 

 quantity, or from taking improper articles of food, a diarrhoea is produced, a 

 wise physician will consider it as a salutary effort of nature to get rid of what 

 would be noxious if retained; and he will allow it to go on for a time, taking 

 care to watch that it does not come to excess. Remedy, pages 60. 127, 

 128, 138, 139, 277. 



DIPHTHERIA.— The disease begins in the form of a whitish spot on 

 one or both tonsils, unaccompanied at first by fever, and attended with only a 

 trifling degree of uneasiness in swallowing. By and by this spot enlarges; its 

 edges become of a florid color, fever steals on, and the act of swallowing 

 becomes painful. A slough gradually forms, with evident ulceration at its 

 edges; the fever increases, and headache and restlessness supervene. The partial 

 separation of the slough, together with the rosy color of the edges of the ulcer 

 with the moderate degree of fever for some days, promise a favorable issue 

 But very unexpectedly, slowness of breathing, without either difficulty of 

 wheezing takes place, with excessive and sudden sinking of the living powers; 

 and it generally happens that within a day from this change the fatal event 

 occurs; the breathing at first falls to eighteen respirations in the minute, then 

 to sixteen, to twelve, and finally to ten or eight. Two other symptoms occa^ 

 sionally attend the disease; the one is a most offensive smell of the breath, and 

 the other is the sudden appearance of croup. The disease attacks people of 

 various ages. Remedy, pages 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 107. 



DROPSY.— *%mp!!(?ms.— A disease, of which a very conspicuous symp- 

 tom is the effusion of a watery fluid in certain cavities and cells, where it is 

 not perceptible in the healthy state. Thus water may be accumulated in the 

 ventricles of the brain, in the chest, in the belly, and the cellular texture gen- 

 erally, giving rise to a train of symptoms, different in each particular case, and 

 requiring particular modes of cure. Water effused in the ventricles of tho 



