126 Proceedings of the British Association. 



He terms it Alkaline Indigestion. The peculiar features of this disease 

 are a violent pain in the region of the stomach, accompanied sometimes 

 with a feeling of fainting, head-ache, and more rarely an inclination to 

 vomit. Suddenly a sensation of spasm comes on, as if some contraction 

 were taking place, and the patient speedily finds his mouth full of water, 

 which he is obliged to empty. This operation he has no sooner per- 

 formed, than he requires to repeat it, and at last a continuous stream 

 flows from his mouth, which endures for some time, when it ceases, and 

 along with it the pain of the stomach. This, together with the chemical 

 re-action of the fluid ejected, appears to distinguish in a very complete 

 manner, alkaline and neutral indigestion from the acid state, all of 

 which have been confounded by former writers. The distinction is the 

 more important, because these different forms require, in some measure, 

 opposite modes of treatment. With regard to the cause of the alkaline 

 re-action, Dr. Thomson stated that after evaporating the fluid emitted 

 from the stomach, and igniting the residue, he had obtained, by crystal- 

 lization, fine crystals of carbonate of soda. The presence of these, how- 

 ever, he ascribed often to the decomposition of common salt by the 

 process, or to the previous existence of lactate of soda in the fluid. He 

 was more inclined to attribute it to the former source, because the 

 quantity of crystals was so very considerable. Dr. Thomson stated that 

 the ejection of these fluids from the stomach was much more common 

 than was usually imagined, as out of forty or fifty patients admitted 

 daily at the Blenheim Street Dispensary, in London, he generally found 

 one or two affected with such symptoms. For some years past he had 

 made it a rule always to examine these fluids, and the results of his 

 experiments were embodied in his present communication. He observ- 

 ed that these complaints were frequently symptomatic of diseases placed 

 in other organs, as the uterus, liver, &c. But the secondary disease 

 was often the more disagreeable, and therefore required to be as carefully 

 treated as the original one. 



Mr. Hodgson read a paper, ' On the Red Appearance on the Internal 

 Coat of Arteries, ' which, he stated, did not depend on inflammation in 

 every instance, and from which it should be carefully distinguished ; it 

 might occur extensively, or in small patches, or in different parts of the 

 same subject, presenting different shades of colour. It was found in 

 subjects of all ages, in healthy as well as morbid coats, in the lining 

 membrane of the heart, and of the veins, but less frequently in the lat- 

 ter. It may be found when blood is present in those cavities after 

 death, or where they are completely empty. Mr. Hodgson related the 

 experiments of Laennec and Andral, which proved that this red appear- 

 ance might be communicated after death by immersing the vessels in 

 blood. As to the efficient cause, he stated, that it might proceed from 

 imbibition, in the same manner as we find the neighbouring membranes 

 stained with bile from the gall-bladder and its ducts ; the first changes 

 towards decomposition and putrefaction might allow of it more readily. 





