CHRONIC GASTRIC CATARRH. 



511 



quire no special treatment ; but sometimes, as in cholera morbus, or 

 cholera infantum, they may be so severe that the blood will be much 

 thickened by the loss of water, and life be endangered. Opium is the 

 most usual prescription for the excessive vomiting and purging. We 

 do not know exactly how opium arrests these symptoms. If it only 

 paralyzed the intestines, and so diminished the number of the stools 

 without decreasing the secretion of the mucous membrane, it would be 

 of little real benefit ; but it really seems as if, besides the influence it 

 has on the movements of the intestines, and perhaps as a direct result 

 of this, it also limited the secretion of the intestinal mucous membrane. 

 Hence, if, in cholera morbus, ice-water do not arrest vomiting, and the 

 passages become more numerous, we should give gr. ss of opium in 

 powder, or its equivalent of laudanum, alone or with analeptics. In 

 spite of our dislike to give opium to children, and in spite of our be- 

 lief that it answers neither the indicatio morbi nor the causal indica- 

 tions, we may be obliged to give small doses of it in cholera infantum. 

 In cholera morbus, or cholera infantum, the greater the collapse, the 

 weaker the pulse, and the lower the temperature, the more necessary 

 it becomes to use stimulants ; inwardly we may give small doses of 

 wine, ether, coffee ; outwardly we may use sinapisms. 



On the other hand, in the course of acute gastric catarrh, in spite 

 of the alkalies that have been exhibited, a quantity of mucus may col 

 lect as a product of the disease, and by its decomposition cause an 

 obstinate continuance of the affection, or, after this has run its course, 

 may retard convalescence and disturb digestion. If, in the later stages 

 of gastric catarrh, the painful attacks of vomiting, which, from time to 

 time, throw out quantities of mucus, the loss of appetite, or the slow 

 recovery, render it probable that such a state of affairs exists in the 

 stomach, it may be necessary to give an emetic. 1 



OHAPTEK II. 



CHRONIC GASTEIC CATARRH. 



ETIOLOGY. Chronic gastric catarrh sometimes occurs as a result 

 of the acute affection ; when this is protracted or relapses frequently, 

 sometimes it originates as a chronic disease. Hence the etiolog} 

 is mostly the same as that of acute gastric catarrh. It may be 

 caused : 



1. By all injurious influences that excite the above disease, 

 when they act continuously or repeatedly. But the habitual mis- 

 use of spirituous liquors deserves particular mention, as it is by 

 far the most frequent cause of chronic gastric catarrh. We also ob 



