564 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



the Atrophia infantum. This has received its name from the 

 time of life at which it generally appears ; but I have met with 

 instances of it at fourteen years of age ascertained by dissection. 

 In several such cases which I have seen, the patients were with- 

 out any scrofulous appearances at the time, or at any period of 

 their lives before. 



In the case of phthisical persons, I shall hereafter mention 

 another cause of their emaciation ; but it is probable that an 

 obstruction of the mesenteric glands, which so frequently hap- 

 pens in such persons, concurs very powerfully in producing the 

 emaciation that takes place. 



Although a scrofulous taint may be the most frequent cause 

 of mesenteric obstructions, it is sufficiently probable that other 

 kinds of acrimony may produce the same, and the emaciation 

 that follows. 



It may perhaps be supposed, that the interruption of the 

 chyle's passing into the blood-vessels may be sometimes owing 

 to a fault of the absorbents on the internal surface of the intes- 

 tines. This, however, cannot be readily ascertained : but the 

 interruption of the chyle^s passing into the blood-vessels may 

 certainly be owing to a rupture of the thoracic duct ; which, 

 when it does not prove soon fatal, by occasioning a hydrothorax, 

 must in a short time produce a general emaciation. 



MDCVIL A third cause of the deficiency of the fluids may 

 be a fault in the organs of digestion, as not duly converting 

 the aliment into a chyle fit to form in the blood-vessels a pro- 

 per nutritious matter. It is not, however, easy to ascertain the 

 cases of emaciation which are to be attributed to this cause ; 

 but I apprehend that the emaciation which attends long sub- 

 sisting cases of dyspepsia, or of hypochondriasis, is to be ex- 

 plained chiefly in this way. It is this which I have placed in 

 the Nosology under the title of the Atrophia debilium ; and of 

 which the Atrophia nervosa, Sauv. sp. 1. is a proper instance, 

 and therefore put there as a synonyme. But the other titles, of 

 Atrophia lateralis, Sauv. sp. 15. and Atrophia senilis, Sauv. 

 sp. 11. are not so properly put there, as they must be explained 

 in a different manner. 



MDCVIII. A fourth cause of a deficiency of the fluids in 

 the body, may be excessive evacuations made from it by differ- 



