ENTERALGIA. 617 



and the administration of so-called pellentia, rarely cause haemorrhoids, 

 while the periodical abstraction of blood attains the only object that it 

 ;vas sensible to aim at. 



OHAPTEK VIII. 



NERVOUS AFFECTIONS OF THE INTESTINES COLIC ENTERALGIA. 



AFFECTIONS of the sensory nerves of the mesenteric plexus- 

 colic, in the strict sense of the word are not by any means frequent. 

 Analogy leads us to suspect then* occasional occurrence from structural 

 diseases of the ganglia and plexuses of the sympathetic nerve ; but 

 this has not been proved. The frequent occurrence of mesenteric 

 neuralgia in hysterical females speaks for its reflex origin. Lastly, lead- 

 colic is the most striking instance of a nervous affection caused by 

 poisoning. In the latter case, however, there appears to be not a sim- 

 ple affection of the sensory nerves a hyperaesthesia but, at the same 

 time, there seems to be a disturbance of the motor nerves a hyper- 

 cinesis as the painful intestine is always contracted. The lead, 

 whose absorption into the body causes lead-colic one symptom of 

 lead poisoning is partly breathed in as fine powder, and partly ab- 

 sorbed from the intestinal and Schneiderian mucous membrane. Hence 

 we find the disease among white-lead paint-makers, lead and silver- 

 smiths, painters, color-grinders, potters, type-founders, compositors, 

 and others who work in an atmosphere loaded with particles of lead. 

 The misuse of medicinal preparations of lead, the adulteration of wine 

 and other liquors with sugar of lead, or by the accidental addition of 

 lead to them, is at present a much rarer cause of lead-colic than those 

 above mentioned. Still the celebrated colic of Devonshire, Poitou, and 

 other epidemic and endemic colics, which very much resembled lead- 

 colic, appeared due to poisoning from some drink containing lead, and 

 not to poisoning by vegetable substances. In some rare but authen- 

 tic cases, lead-colic has occurred from using snuff that had been packed 

 in lead-foil. The predisposition to lead-colic is very varied, but among 

 the predisposing causes we only know the great tendency to the dis> 

 ease left by a previous attack ; all the other causes which are blamed, 

 as increasing the predisposition to lead-colic, such as debauchery, 

 drunkenness, etc., can hardly be denied, for they are found everywhere, 

 when no other causes can be detected. 



But by colic, in the wider sense, we understand, besides the nervous 

 affections of the mesenteric plexus, all painful affections of the intes- 

 tines which are not caused by inflammation or textural changes of the 

 intestinal walls. So, among the symptoms of helminthiasis, we shall 



