DYSENTERY. 



115 



Vomiting — vide chronic gastritis. 



Waterbrash, or pyrosis ; eructation of clear liquid. — Good plain 

 meat diet, bismuth, kino, oil of amber, and tonics. 



Gastrodynia, severe spasmodic pain. — Bismuth, and magnesia, or 

 nitrate of silver, or hydrocyanic acid. 



Constipation. — A compound rhubarb pill before dinner, or dec. 

 al. c. in the morning, or any other mild aperient taken habitually. 



The greatest attention should be paid to the diet and regimen ; the 

 patient should take gentle exercise, and the mind should be diverted 

 by such occupations as combine amusement with moderate muscular 

 exertion. Palpitation of the heart in dyspeptic patients is often a 

 troublesome symptom. It may be palliated by the combination of 

 sedatives with tonics, as the sulphate of iron with extract of hop, the 

 nitrate of silver with henbane, o^prussic acid. Dr. Johnson speaks 

 highly of the nitrate of silver in cases of dyspeptic palpitation. A 

 disordered state of the liver also frequently accompanies dyspepsia. 

 Should this organ appear to be congested, some blood may be drawn 

 by cupping glasses over the right hypochondrium, and small doses 

 of blue pill, with saline aperients, administered three times a week. 

 Finally, as auxiliaries, the change of air and scene, and the use of 

 mineral waters, should not be neglected in protracted cases of dyspepsia. 



V DYSENTERY. 



Dysentery is an inflammation of the colon, with much pain and 

 spasm. It most commonly prevails in warm climates, when men 

 are collected together in large numbers. It may, however, occur 

 sporadically in the acute or chronic form. 



Causes. — The chief causes of acute dysentery are, exposure to 

 cold damp air, acrid indigestible food, spirituous liquors, and expo- 

 sure to unwholesome exhalations. It prevails most in autumn, and 

 is held by some writers to be contagious. 



Symj)toms, — General febrile excitement, nausea, vomiting, griping 

 pains about the umbilical region, frequent, painful, straining, ineffec- 

 tual efforts to pass stools ; heat of skin, frequent pulse, thirst, heat 

 and pain about the anus, anxiety, and prostration of strength. The 

 dejected matters are various : in the commencement the stools are 

 often bilious ; but the evacuation of faeces soon ceases, and nothing 

 is passed but small quantities of bloody mucus, intermingled with 

 pus or shreds of albuminous matter. 



If the disease be not checked, the abdominal pain becomes more 

 fixed, the pulse is feeble and extremely quick, the strength fails, the 

 dejections assume a very fcetid character,, delirium supervenes; and 

 the patient sinks at a period varying from fifteen to thirty days. 

 The disease may terminate unfavourably by ulceration, gangrene, 

 or the extension of the inflammatory action to the peritoneum. 



Morbid appearances. — Dysentery consists essentially in an in- 



