220 DYSPEPSIA. 



not difficult to understand. The physiology of digestion 

 affords us plausible grounds for presuming, that the details 

 which distinguish this organ from the remainder of the ali- 

 mentary canal especially its shape, its size, its situation, its 

 office, and the peculiarities of innervation associated with 

 them give it a kind of paramount importance ; and render 

 it, in the main, far more sensible to various disturbing 

 agencies, and far more disposed to betray disturbance by 

 abnormal phenomena (such as pain, vomiting, or flatulence) 

 than any other segment of the digestive tube. So that even 

 were purely intestinal dyspepsia much more frequent and 

 important than it seems to be, the study of gastric dyspepsia 

 would still be the best means of approaching its consideration. 

 Apart from the frequent secondary involvement of the stomach 

 in the intestinal variety, the symptomatology of dyspepsia of 

 both kinds would be best studied from its most distinct and 

 accessible side. In this respect, indeed, the functional de- 

 rangements of the stomach and intestine do but parallel their 

 structural diseases : in which we often find that lesions, 

 otherwise precisely identical, are betrayed by much more 

 distinct symptoms when located in the stomach than in the 

 bowels; and that, in the latter situation, they are some- 

 times mistakenly referred to the stomach, owing to those 

 secondary derangements of this organ which they are liable 

 to excite." 



The causes of dyspepsia in the lower animals are far less 

 varied than the causes of a similar condition in the human 

 subject. They may be classed under two heads : Firstly, 

 Giving much food at rare intervals, or starving an animal for 

 some time, and then allowing coarse aliment in considerable 

 quantities ; Secondly, Indigestible foods. I can specify 

 numerous instances of great practical interest. Horses fall 

 out of condition from hurriedly cramming their stomachs, 



