(520 AFFECTIONS OF THE INTESTINAL CANAL. 



tioiis, the course of the disease shows a distinctly remitting type, so 

 that paroxysms of the severest torture are varied with intervals of 

 comparative ease. The duration of the disease varies : under suitable 

 treatment, the first attack of lead-colic usually subsides in a few days 

 or weeks; after repeated returns, the attacks may last for months. 

 When the disease terminates in recovery, this may occur suddenly or 

 gradually ; the pains subside, there are free evacuations, and strength 

 soon returns. The cure is often incomplete, and, after the lead-colic 

 has been removed, symptoms of chronic lead-poisoning may remain. 

 The disease rarely causes death, and, even in such cases, the patients 

 do not die of the lead-colic, but of some of its complications. 



The above description of a mesenteric neuralgia will also answer 

 for that of colic hi the wider sense. Henoch is correct in saying that 

 the quality of a pain is the same, whether caused by the irritation of a 

 nerve at its peripheral expansion, at its origin, or during its course. 

 In colica flatulenta, and other colics of this class, the pain may become 

 very severe, and then its intensity is depicted in the changed appear- 

 ance of the patient ; he is near fainting, the body is covered with cold 

 sweat, the visage is pale and distorted, the pulse small ; occasionally 

 there are also nausea, vomiting, strangury, and other similar circum- 

 stances. We should know these symptoms, so as not to be deceived 

 and unnecessarily worried. We can often hear and distinctly feel, on 

 the abdomen of the patient, that the gas is freed from its imprison- 

 ment, and passes into other parts of the intestine. This is an important 

 event; with its occurrence the pain often disappears instantly. In 

 other cases, there is no improvement till the patient has a passage, and 

 the faeces, which distended the intestine, or behind which the gases were 

 collected, are evacuated. 



TREATMENT. In the neuralgic form, the causal indications may 

 require treatment of the uterine disease that has induced the neuralgia. 

 In lead-colic, the attempt has been made to fulfil the causal indications 

 by chemically precipitating the lead that has been taken into the body. 

 With this view, sulphuric acid and sulphates, particularly alum and 

 glauber salts, have been prescribed. Although we can do little by 

 this, or any other treatment, to remove lead-poisoning, we may do 

 much to prevent its occurrence. With this view, we should avoid the 

 use of lead in making pipes and vessels for conducting or holding water 

 and other fluids for drinking. The workers in founderies, and other 

 places where particles of lead fill the air, should bathe and wash care- 

 fully, and change their linen frequently ; they should not eat in their 

 workshop, and the latter should be very airy, and well ventilated. 

 Zinc-paint should be used, instead of lead-paint, for painting doors and 

 windows, and it should be a penal offence to pack snuff in sheet-lead. 



