CATAHRH. 407 



between the vessel and the muscular fiisciculi ; in the ease of the 

 veins, on the other hand, it is exceedingly slight ; these are 

 accordingly liable to be compressed, whenever the muscular 

 coat contracts. Hence every such contraction must hinder the 

 efflux of blood from the alimentary mucous membrane ; its 

 vessels are congested, the congestion lasting as long as the 

 contraction, and being liable to assume a more chronic character 

 if the contractions are often repeated. The beariiigs of this 

 arrangement upon the digestive process are very obvious. The 

 peristaltic contractions, besides pushing on the contents of the 

 bowel, help both secretion and absorption by exciting and keep- 

 ing up a hyperiemic state of the mucous membrane ; they aid 

 secretion, by supplying the open glands w^ith raw material in 

 greater abundance ; they help absorption, by causing that injec- 

 tion of the capillaries of the villi, which, according to KoUiker, 

 co-operates so weightily towards the filling of the axial lymphatic 

 space. Mean^vhile, we must remember that every physiological 

 hyperaemia is a gift of the Danai to the organ which is liable to 

 it ; since the least derangement of the machinery converts its 

 benefits into curses. So in the present case. 'No mucous mem- 

 brane exhibits catarrhal disturbances of circulation in so intense 

 a degree as that of the stomach and intestines ; for the irritant 

 which affects the mucous membrane excites peristaltic contrac- 

 tion quite as promptly, and far more powerfully, than the food. 

 Dysentery and cholera afford colossal examples of the harm 

 which may accrue in this way ; the intense oedema of the mucous 

 membrane of the large intestine in the former disease, the 

 hfemorrhages, even the diphtheritic lesions, are partly due to the 

 violent tonic spasm of the muscular coat ; and if we go on to 

 assume that in cholera, an excess of peristaltic activity contri- 

 butes in some measure towards the copious flux from the gastro- 

 intestinal surface, we shall have got at a causal nexus between 

 two of its most familiar symptoms. But we need not go so far 

 afield in search of illustrations ; the phenomenon exhibited on so 

 great a scale by cholera and dysentery, is repeated on a small 

 one in every catarrh, however trifling. We shall come across it 

 again when we discuss the patholog}' of haemorrhage from 

 mucous surfaces, and that of gastric ulcer (perforating ulcer of 

 the stomach). 



It is onlv the vesical and uterine mucous membranes which 



