526 FRANCIS* CASES OF MORBID ANATOMY. 



with the exception of occasional attacks of diarrhoea, which, during 

 the last four years, became extremely severe and troublesome, weaken- 

 ed his digestive organs, and greatly impaired his constitution. 



During the war just closed, as a subordinate officer, he was actively 

 engaged in the discharge of duties incident to his military appointment, 

 and frequently subjected himself to the vicissitudes of the weather : 

 during an inclement season in September, 1814, while on the sea coast 

 at the Narrows, he contracted an inflammatory disorder of his chest, 

 from which, however, he was soon relieved. About this period he 

 found his appetite for food decreased, and, from the diminished quantity 

 of nutriment upon which he lived, his health was much impaired. He 

 stated that he felt considerable soreness under the region of the pit of 

 the stomach, and further added, that, although he had not before made 

 it known, he had suffered this particular pain repeatedly before, and at 

 considerable intervals. He was not, at this time, under the care of any 

 medical attendant, aad all he did for his complaint, was living upon 

 aliment less exciting and more easy of digestion than that to which he 

 had been accustomed. 



During October he was sometimes affected with nausea, and ejected 

 the contents of his stomach; but in the subsequent month, it was a 

 common occurrence with him to be attacked with excessive vomiting; 

 particularly upon lying down upon his right side. Toward the close 

 of November he applied for the advice of a neighbouring physician, 

 who recommended the application of blisters, and the use of cathartics, 

 for the purpose of diminishing the soreness under the scrobiculus 

 cordis, and of allaying the irritability of the stomach. Though he 

 enjoyed a respite from pain,, at intervals of some twenty or thirty 

 hours in length, it was evident that his disorder was becoming more 

 formidable. 



