468 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



and therefore stercoraceous matter, is thrown up by vomiting ; 

 and the same inversion appears still more clearly from this, that 

 what is thrown into the rectum by glyster is again thrown out 

 by the mouth. In these circumstances of inversion the disease 

 has been named Ileus, or the Iliac Passion ; and this has been 

 supposed to be a peculiar disease distinct from colic ; but to me 

 it appears, that the two diseases are owing to the same proxi- 

 mate cause, and have the same symptoms, only in a different 

 degree. 



" Among the synonyms of colic I have set down Ileus. This 

 implies that I consider colic and ileus as one and the same dis- 

 ease, differing merely in degree. The common opinion is, that 

 ileus depends on inflammation ; and there may be reason for 

 thinking so, because dissections have shewn an inflamed state ; 

 but, I maintain that when inflammation occurs, it merely super- 

 venes upon the original disease ; and I have in more than one 

 instance seen all the symptoms of ileus without inflammation, 

 and the disease readily admitting of a cure without the reme- 

 dies against inflammation. We had a patient in the Infirmary, 

 who for weeks threw up stercoraceous substances, and the matters 

 injected by glysters ; but there was an entire absence of fever, 

 and the disease by its circumstances and cure shewed that no in- 

 flammation was present. When I thus therefore separate ileus 

 from enteritis, I refer it to the colic." 



MCCCCXXXVIII. The colic is often without any pyrexia 

 attending it. Sometimes, however, an inflammation comes up- 

 on the part of the intestine especially affected ; and this in- 

 flammation aggravates all the symptoms of the disease, being 

 probably what brings on the most considerable inversion of the 

 peristaltic motion ; and, as the stercoraceous vomiting is what 

 especially distinguishes the ileus, this has been considered as 

 always depending on an inflammation of the intestines. How- 

 ever, I can affirm, that as there are inflammations of the intes- 

 tines without stercoraceous vomiting, so I have seen instances 

 of stercoraceous vomiting without inflammation ; and there is 

 therefore no ground for distinguishing ileus from colic, but as a 

 higher degree of the same affection. 



MCCCCXXXIX. The symptoms of the colic, and the 

 dissections of bodies dead of this disease, show very clearly 



