430 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



fomenting the obstructed part, they may facilitate the passage of fluids which 

 have accumulated above. Moreover, if these enemata are composed of beef-tea 

 or milk, and are retained as long as possible, they serve materially to maintain 

 the strength of the patient. Injections of very large quantities of warm water, 

 have sometimes been attended with the happiest results. Fomentation of the 

 abdomen externally by large hot poultices, of gentle friction of the surface with 

 warm oil, may do good. All manipulation must be performed with the greatest 

 care and gentleness, for you might easily rupture the thin, distended bowel by 

 rough or careless handling. 



But should these remedies prove unavailing, can nothing more be done 1 Yes, 

 life may sometimes be reprieved by a surgical operation. Inflation of the obstructed 

 gut by the injection of air into the bowel has been practised with success. In the 

 case of a young lady, about ten years of age, inflation was performed on the fifth 

 day after the setting in of symptoms of acute intestinal obstruction, supposed 

 to depend on intussusception. The proceeding was followed by perfect success, the 

 patient felt "as if a bone had broken" in her abdomen, the obstruction was 

 removed, and motions followed in three hours, although all previous treatment had 

 failed. Other methods of treatment are sometimes resorted to. The gut may be 

 punctured above the seat of obstruction and allowed to discharge its contents 

 through what is known as an " artificial anus." There are at the present time many 

 people living and in good health whose lives have doubtless been prolonged by this 

 operation. Occasionally the abdomen has been opened with the view of dis- 

 entangling or setting free the intestine strangulated within. It should always be 

 remembered that in cases apparently hopeless a spontaneous cure sometimes takes 

 place almost at the last moment, and that the more protracted the duration of the 

 disease the greater are the chances of recovery. 



OFFENSIVE BREATH. 



Nothing can be more disagreeable than an offensive breath. In health the breath 

 should be perfectly sweet and tasteless. We have already had occasion to refer 

 incidently to the condition of the breath in several disorders. Thus we have seen 

 that in diabetes mellitus it has a peculiarly sweet odour, which has been likened by 

 some to the smell of chloroform, and by others to that noticed in an apple-room. 

 In Bright's 'disease the breath may acquire an odour of sal-volatile, or it may 

 resemble that of the urine, especially when the patient is suffering from the condition 

 known as ursemic poisoning. During the progress of most fevers the breath is not 

 only disagreeable but infectious. In malignant sore throat, in scurvy, and in people 

 who have been salivated by mercury, the breath is often extremely disagreeable. 

 But probably the disease in which the breath becomes most offensive is gangrene of 

 the lung. This condition sometimes occurs in the course of advanced consumption, 

 and its onset is only too readily recognised by the foul smell of the breath. 



In the majority of cases, however, offensive breath occurs not in the course of 

 any of these diseases, but simply as the result of indigestion or want of attention to 

 the teeth. The advertising dentist usually draws a ghastly picture of the horrors of 



