SECTION V. 

 AFFECTIONS OF THE INTESTINAL CANAL. 



CHAPTER I. 



CATARRHAL INFLAMMATION OP THE INTESTINAL MUCOUS MEMBRANE 

 ENTERITIS CATARRHALIS, CATARRHUS INTESTINALIS. 



ETIOLOGY. In the mucous membrane of the intestines also catarrh 

 is the constant result of every hyperaemia, whether the vascular fulness 

 depend on purely mechanical causes, or on other injurious influences. 

 At the commencement of the disease, and in acute cases, the hyperae- 

 mia induces more particularly extensive transudations of a salty fluid, 

 deficient in albumen ; subsequently, and in chronic cases, on the other 

 hand, it generally leads to abnormal production of mucus and cells. 



Intestinal catarrh, and particularly the chronic variety, is one of the 

 most frequent of diseases : 



1. It constantly accompanies obstruction of the circulation of the 

 liver. The impeded escape of the blood from the portal vein must 

 necessarily cause overfilling of the intestinal veins, and so produce 

 catarrh of the intestines. 



2. It frequently, but less constantly, accompanies the diseases of 

 the respiratory and circulatory organs, which cause obstruction to the 

 evacuation of the vena cava. As in these affections there is venous 

 congestion throughout the circulation, it also occurs in the intestinal 

 mucous membrane ; in these cases the hyperaemia and catarrh of the 

 intestine represent, as it were, the cyanosis of the skin. 



3. More rarely, disturbance of the external circulation appears to 

 cause active hyperaemia and catarrh of the intestines. In this class 

 appear to belong the excessive hyperaemia of the intestines, which ac- 

 company severe inflammation of the skin, caused by burns, as well as 

 the evanescent hyperaemia with copious serous exudation induced by 

 sudden exposure of the skin to low temperature, as by travelling in 

 the mountains (Bidder and Schmidt). We will not attempt to say 



