58 ON DIGITALIS, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE UIHNE. 



appetite, but I had this as well while I was not taking it ; nor 

 do I think my appetite was better after recovering from the 

 sickness caused by the digitaline, than it was before beginning 

 to take the drug, as Withering* found, but his observations had 

 been made on invalids. 



Its emetic and cathartic effects, when given in large doses, 

 have been long recognised, and seem to have been the first pro- 

 perties to attract attention. Before these effects appear, how- 

 ever, there are symptoms of digestive derangement of a slighter 

 character, consisting of loss of appetite, bad taste in mouth, 

 borborygmi, abdominal distension, pain in the stomach, occa- 

 sional nausea, and a vague desire to vomit.f When vomiting 

 occurs, it is violent and painful. Faure^ describes its characters, 

 as seen by him in dogs, as being peculiar in the expulsive effort 

 of the stomach, far from being the principal circumstances, 

 as in vomiting from other causes is only the result of a series 

 of convulsive contractions, beginning in the limbs, and extending, 

 first to the lower part of abdomen, and then to the upper part 

 and thorax, and under violent contractions the stomach is 

 exposed to pressure, and expels its contents. The vomited 

 matters are mixed witli bile, sanouinolent mucus, and fluids of 

 the stomach. The vomitings are intermittent, and the animal 

 rapidly recovers from the effects of one, and seems well till 

 attacked by another fit, the amount vomited after the first fit or 

 or two having emptied the stomach, being very small. This 

 description I think correct in regard to dogs, except the small 

 share which Dr. Faure seems inclined to give the stomach in 

 the act of vomiting ; for this must be considerable, if we may 

 judge by analogy from the human subject, as well as by the 

 extreme pressure necessary to make the stomach reject so little 

 as a tea'spoonful at a time, unless it were contracting violently 

 itself The sensation I experienced, while vomiting on the 

 morning of the 16th March, was as if the stomach were con- 

 tracting with extreme violence as in cramp, much more so than 

 in vomiting in general, and a feeling of soreness continued 

 for some time after. The stomach was entirely empty on that 



* Withering, ' On Foxglove,* 



t Appendix, March 17. t I^cHn. Med. Journ., Nov., 1864, p. 461. 



