GASTRITIS. 279 



is manifestly attributable either to chemical poison or me- 

 chanical irritation ; and even in these we are commonly led 

 to the seat of the disease rather by circumstantial evi- 

 dence than any pathognomonic we are able to glean out of 

 the case itself. 



By CHEMICAL PoisoNj I mean the irritation and conse- 

 quent infiamm<ation caused by substances (s^ome vegetal, more 

 mineral) given either in an improper form or undue quan- 

 tity ; many of which, sufficiently diluted or reduced, we are 

 in the habit of administering medicinally ; though even in 

 their medicinal forms are they very apt to leave marl^s of 

 irritation, often nmounting to inflammation, upon the 

 tender villous lining of the stomach. The aloes composing 

 a common dose of physic does this ; hence arises the nausea 

 and loathing of food. Gastritis and death used to be by no 

 means an uncommon consequence of "a dose of physic/^ when 

 aloes was wont to be given in large and excessive doses: though 

 now that the dose is reduced to a proper standard, the oc- 

 currence be rare, still, now and then, will it happen. Mr. Daws 

 relates a case in vol. xiii of ' The Veterinarian,^ wherein a 

 horse, well prepared, took but 5vij of aloes. The day after, 

 he was seized with pain; his belly swelled; with countenance 

 betraying intense anxiety, and his body was covered with 

 cold, clammy sweat. The stomach was found, after death, 

 in a state of distension of air, with but little food in it ; and 

 its villous lining proved a sheet of inflammation. 



Hellebore, blue vitriol, corrosive sublimate, arsenic, ver- 

 digris, &c., take a similar but more potent effect. When 

 any such substances as these are introduced into the sto- 

 mach in excess, either as regards their quantity or strength, 

 and in consequence produce a degree of topical inflammation 

 suflScient to cause pain and arouse fever in the system, we 

 denominate the substance 2t. poison, and feel not more desirous 

 to investigate the seat of the disorder than to make some 

 discrimination in the symptoms characteristic of different 

 poisons, in order that we may thereby be able to conjecture 

 which kind or one of them has been exhibited. 



The Symptoms occasioned by the introduction to cxces!s 



