Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin, M.D. 331 



quantity or acrimony of the bile, and consequent weakness 

 of the circulation. The pulse is so quick in some cases of 

 chlorosis, that, when attended with an accidental cough, it 

 may be mistaken for pulmonary consumption. This quick 

 pulse is owing to the debility of the heart from the want of 

 stimulus occasioned by the deficiency of the quantity, and 

 acrimony of the blood. 



M. M. Steel. Bitters. Constant moderate exercise. Fric- 

 tion with flannel all over the body and limbs night and 

 morning. Rhubarb five grains, opium half a grain, every 

 night. Flesh diet, with small beer, or wine and water. The 

 disease continues some months, but at length subsides by 

 the treatment above described. A bath of about eighty de- 

 grees, as Buxton Bath, is of service; a colder bath may do 

 great injury. 



Cardialgia. — Heartburn originates from the inactivity of 

 the stomach, whence the aliment, instead of being subdued 

 by digestion, and converted into chyle, runs into fermenta- 

 tion, producing acetous acid. Sometimes the gastric juice 

 itself becomes so acid as to give pain to the upper orifice of 

 the stomach ; these acid contents of the stomach, on falling 

 on a marble hearth, have been seen to produce an efferves- 

 cence on it. The pain of heat at the upper end of the gul- 

 let, when any air is brought up from the fermenting con- 

 tents of the stomach, is to be ascribed to the sympathy be- 

 tween these two extremities of the Oesophagus rather than 

 to the pungency of the carbonic gas, or fi-xed air; as the 

 sensation in swallowing that kind of air in water is of a dif- 

 ferent kind. 



M. M. This disease arising from indigestion is often very 

 pertinacious, and afflicting ; and attended with emaciation 

 of the body from want of sufficient chyle. As the saliva 

 swallowed along with our food prevents its fermentation, as 

 appears by the experiments of Pringle and Macbride, some 

 find considerable relief by chewing parched wheat, or mastic, 

 or a lock of wool, frequently in a day, when the pain oc- 

 curs, and by swallowing the saliva thus effused ; a tempo- 

 rary relief is often obtained from antiacids, as aeraied alka- 

 line water, Seltzer's water, calcareous, earths, alkaline salts. 



made 



