14 DB. CEASE'S RECIPES. 



brain is commonly the consequence of previous inflammation; and gives rise 

 to a variety of distressiig symptoms, which generally prove fatal. Remedy, 

 pages 45, 46, 161. 



DYSENTERY, OR BLOODY FLUX.— This is an inflammation of 

 the mucous or lining membrane of the large intestine, of which the symptoms 

 are frequent calls to &tool, with a scanty discharge of mucus, alone or mixed 

 with blood. The stools are accompanied with copious discharges of wind, they 

 generally exhibit a frothy appearance, and are often attended with a sense of 

 scalding about the anus; the patient, after each evacuation, feels considerably 

 relieved, and hopes, but in vain, to enjoy an interval of ease. Along with this 

 affection of the bowels, there is great dejection of spirits, prostration of strength, 

 thirst, gripiug pains, and loss of appetite, with fever in very acute cases. The 

 disease varies in its duration; sometimes the patient sinks very rapidly, at other 

 times lingers on for a long period, the slimy stools continuing, and being mixed 

 with purulent and bloody matter from the ulceration of the bowels. 



Causes. — It is a disease very common in warm cHmates, and is to be 

 ascribed to exposure to heat, alternated with cold and moisture, especially in 

 swampy localities, or the banks of rivers. Whatever tends to congestion of 

 the liver, such as intemperance, exposure, etc., in hot climates, will predispose 

 to dysentery, by obstructing the return of the blood from the large intestines to 

 the liver. Sometimes dysentery attacks soldiers epidemically, when they are 

 encamped on marshy ground, with a burning sun over-head, and having hard 

 night duty to perform; and the disease may prevail with such virulence that 

 there is good reason for supposing it infectious under these circumstances. In 

 ordinary cases it is not so. At the same time, every precaution should be taken 

 to promote cleanliness, to remove from the sick every thing putrid and offens- 

 ive, and to give f,s little unnecessary disturbance as possible. Remedy, pages 

 60, 139, 196, 234. 



DYSPEPSIA OR INDIGESTION.— *Symi9to7ns.— These vary very 

 much in different stages of the disease, and in different persons. In general 

 the complaint begins with a sense of fullness, tightness, and weight in the 

 stomach, sooner or later, after meals, and a changeable, diminished, or lost 

 appetite. Occasionally, the appetite is craving, and when, in obedience to its 

 promptings, a large meal is taken, there is pain in the stomach, with general 

 distress and nervousness, and sometimes vomiting. Flatulency and acidity are 

 common, with sour and offensive belching of wind; and very often there is a 

 water-brash, or vomiting of a clear, glairy fluid when the stomach is empty. 

 Dizziness is a prominent sjTnptom. There is a great deal of what patients call 

 an "all-gone" feeling at the pit of the stomach, — a weakness so great at that 

 particular spot that it is very hard to sit up straight. There is a bad taste in 

 the mouth; the tongue is covered with a whitish fur; there is headache, heart- 

 burn, palpitation at times, high-colored urine, and tenderness, now and then, 

 at the pit of the stomach. The bowels are generally irregular, sometimes very 

 netive, at other times loose, when portions of food are passed off undigested. 



Such are the symptoms in a case of simple disorder of the stomach, when 



