THE STOMACH. 



285 



Having resorted to this operation, a course of diuretics with tonics should be 

 immediately commenced, and the absorbentB roused to action before the cavity 

 fills again. 



There is in pleurisy a far greater tendency to relapse than in pneumonia. 

 The lungs do not perfectly recover from their state of collapse, nor the serous 

 membrane from its long maceration in the effused fluid : oedema, cough, disin- 

 clination to work, incapability of rapid progression, colicky pains — as the unob- 

 servant practitioner would call them — but in truth pleuritic stitches ; these are 

 the frequent sequelae of pleurisy. This will afford another reason why the 

 important operation of paracentesis should not be deferred too long. 



There is much greater disposition to metastasis than in pneumonia : indeed it 

 is easy to imagine that the inflammation of a mere membrane may more readily 

 and oftener shift than that of the substance of so large a viscus as the lungs. 

 The inflammation shifting its first ground, attacks almost every part indiscri- 

 minately, and appears under a strangely puzzling variety of forms. Dropsy is 

 the most frequent change. Effusion in the abdomen is substituted for that of 

 the chest, or rather the exhalent or absorbent vessels of the abdomen, or both 

 of them, soon sympathise in the debility of those of the thorax. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE ABDOMEN AND ITS CONTENTS. 



THE STOMACH. 



a The oesophagus or gullet, extending to the stomach. . 



b The entrance of the gullet into the stomach. The circular layers of the muscles are 

 very thick and strong, and which, hy their contractions, help to render it difficult loi 

 the food to he returned or vomited. 

 c The portion of the stomach which is covered by cuticle, or insensible skin. 

 d d The margin, which separates the cuticular from the villous portion. 

 e e The mucous, or villous (velvet) portion of the stomach, in which the food is principally 

 digested. 



