240 1X)6S : THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



DISEASES DEPENDENT ON AN INTERNAL ORGAN. 

 STOMACH. ST. VITUs's DANCE. 



THIS disease generally is assumed to be a nervous dis- 

 order, and so the symptoms declare it to be ; but on post 

 mortem examinations no lesion is found either upon the 

 brain, spinal marrow, or the nerves themselves. This 

 last circumstance, however, proves nothing ; for the same 

 thing may be said of tetanus in the human being, and of 

 stringhalt in the horse i ; both of them being well-marked 

 nervous affections. I append St. Vitus's Dance to the 

 stomach, not because of that which I have not beheld, 

 but because of that which I have positively seen. 



It follows upon distemper. I do not know it as a dis- 

 tinct disorder, though it is asserted to exist as such when 

 the greater or leading disease is unobserved. It then 

 follows up the affection which primarily involves the 

 stomach and intestines, and to which indications all other 

 symptoms are secondary. On every post mortem which 

 I have made of this disorder, I have discovered the 

 stomach inflamed ; and, therefore, not because the nerves 

 or their centres are blank, but because on one important 

 viscus I have found well marked signs to impress my 

 reason, I propose to treat of this disorder as connected 

 with the stomach. 



The signs to which I allude, consists of patches of 

 well-defined inflammation ; and hence, knowing how dis- 



