496 DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. 



do not have their mouths regularly cleaned, or if a sugar-teat be given 

 them to prevent their crying, the decomposition of good fresh cow's 

 milk, or even of the mother's milk, may be commenced in the mouth 

 itself, (It is well known how carefully milk-cans must be cleansed and 

 purified of all decomposing substances in order to prevent the milk 

 from spoiling.) If decomposition has once begun in the milk in the 

 stomach, the best milk taken subsequently will act as a poison, as it 

 also soon begins to decompose. We shall hereafter see that ferment- 

 ing substances in the stomach, after death, may destroy and dissolve 

 its walls. Even if such an action on the walls of the stomach be pre- 

 vented during life by the circulation and the rapid change of tissue in 

 them, it is nevertheless not improbable that the epithelium, where nu- 

 trition is less active, may be destroyed, even during life, by the fer- 

 menting substance ; and that the deprivation of the mucous membranf 

 of its protection may cause extensive transudations. It' appears no 4 ; 

 to be the lactic acid, the product of the souring of the milk, but the 

 process of fermentation itself, which excites the symptoms of cholera 

 infantum, and after death causes the softening of the stomach. "We 

 come to this conclusion because milk, which has already curdled, and 

 whose sugar has been transformed into lactic acid, may be eaten 

 even in large quantities by older children and by adults, without dele- 

 terious influence ; and because the so-called softening of the stom- 

 ach may be more readily induced in that organ, when cut out of an 

 animal, by filling it with fresh milk and exposing it to a moderate tem- 

 perature, than by filling it with dilute acid. 



4. Acute catarrh of the stomach may also be caused by irritation, 

 from taking into it very hot or cold articles, some medicines, alcohol, 

 or spices. Alcohol acts most injuriously when it is but slightly diluted. 

 Spices and similar substances, in small quantities, excite the normal 

 processes, and hence may improve digestion; in larger quantities, 

 however, they increase these processes beyond the normal limits, and 

 lead to gastric catarrh. 



5. Acute gastric catarrh is excited by the introduction of sub- 

 stances that weaken the digestive power of the gastric juice, or retard 

 the movements of the stomach. It is evident that, in either case, there 

 may be abnormal decomposition of the contents of the stomach. Apart 

 from the direct irritation of the gastric mucous membrane, the misuse of 

 alcoholic stimulants acts injuriously in this way. In the matter vomited 

 the day after a debauch, much to the astonishment of the patient, he 

 often finds some of the food eaten the previous day, which is hardly 

 changed. The narcotics, particularly opium, seem to cause the gas- 

 trio catarrh, which is so often seen after large doses of them, by impair- 

 Jig the movements of the stomach and thus preventing the food from 



