PATHOLOGY. 
avoided; and this may be aided by the local ftimulus of 
warm water, friction, &'c. and by mechanical fupport to 
the paralyzed hands. Dr. Pemberton has recommended 
that, for this latter purpofe, the patient Ihould have his 
hands and fingers extended upon a fort of battledore, tied 
to the fore-arm, which fhould be worn daily. He affirms 
that, in feveral inftances, a perfeft cure of the paralyfis 
from lead has been effeCled in the courfe of a few weeks. 
(Treatife on Dif. of the abdominal Vifcera.) 
Some varieties are mentioned as arifing from other 
caufes than the poifon of lead ; but it does not feem that 
this peculiar form of colic called rachialgia, and attended 
with paralyfis, is produced by any other materia. It has 
indeed been fuppofed, from its prevalence in cider-coun¬ 
tries, that acid ingefta might produce it; but this oc¬ 
currence feems to have arifen from the frequent employ¬ 
ment of lend in the machinery of cider-making. The 
reader will find this opinion very clearly proved by con- 
fulting fir George Baker’s papers in the Medical Tranf. 
vol. iii. Dr. Hunter, ibid. Dr. Fothergill, Med. Obf. and 
Enq. vol..v. Indeed the pain arifing from acid ifigefta is 
generally with tenefirms and relaxation rather than with 
conftipation. 
Alum has been ftrongly recommended in rachialgia. 
The modus operandi of this drug feems obfcure ; but it 
deferves mentioning from the refpeftability of tliofe who 
introduced it. The fame thing may be laid of the Cupri 
Sulphas. Salivation, percuffion, eleClricity, See. may all 
be ufed with benefit in this kind of palfy ; but they will 
feldom be fuccefsful if, as is generally the cafe, the attack 
of colic fhall have left behind hindrance of the gaftric 
and inteftinal funClions. It is in cafes when the latter cir- 
cumftance happens that the Bath water is a ufeful remedy. 
It is obvious that the return of Colica pi&onutn, 
and of the palfy which fucceeds it, can only be effectu¬ 
ally prevented by relinquiffiing thofe avocations which 
neceffarily expofe the patient to the influence of the 
poifonous metal which excites the difeafe ; or by re¬ 
fraining from thofe liquors with which any of its pre¬ 
parations are intermixed. When the buiinefs of the 
patient precludes this, much good may be derived from 
purgatives whenever conftipation has continued for a 
whole day. 
When colics arife from acrid poifonous matter taken 
into the ftomach, the only cure is either to evacuate the 
poifon itfelf by vomiting, or to fwallow fome other fub- 
ftance which may decompound it, and thus render it in¬ 
active. The moll common and dangerous fubftances of 
this kind are cprrofive mercury and arfenic. The former 
is eafily decompounded by alkaline falts ; the latter by 
ruagnefia in large quantities. Some kinds of fungi, when 
fwallowed, are apt to produce colics attended with flupor, 
delirium, and convullions ; and the fame fometimes hap¬ 
pens from eating a fhell-fifh known by the name of muf- 
cles. The effeCi of the latter is removed by vomiting. 
See the article Poison. 
3. Colica crapulofa, (C. accidentalis, C. meconialis, 
Cull.) Colic from indigeftion,. The pain accompanied 
ivith naufea, head-ache, and dizzinefs, before vomiting, 
and often terminating in a griping loolenels. It is pro¬ 
duced by eating indigeftible aliments, or digeftible ali¬ 
ments in too great abundance. In this fpecies the vo¬ 
miting or loolenefs, or both together, frequently operate 
a cure When they do not, we may, following the natu¬ 
ral indications, excite ficknefs and purging. 
4. Colica flatuienta, wind-colic. In this fpecies, the 
pain is acute, extending to the pit of the ftomach, often 
impeding refpiration ; accompanied with great fulnefs 
and flatulency; and relieved by preffure, bending the 
body forward, or expulfion of wind. The diforder is 
produced by crude and flatulent fruits, and hence com¬ 
mon among children. It is, however, more generally a 
fymptom of dyfpepfia, and hence-the cure is obvious. 
The paroxyfm is to he relieved by antifpafmodics and 
opium; the cauffis removed if poffible, and the bowels 
kept open. 
Vol. XIX. No. 1294. 
151 
A fimilar treatment is requifite in the next fpecies, with 
this reftriCHon, however, that it is lb often conneded 
with general difturbnnce of the nervous and vafcular 
fyftems, that opium Ihould be lefs freely given, and fup- 
purations and clyfters ufed in preference to irritating 
purges. 
5. Colica ftipata is characterized by fevere pain, obfti- 
nate coltivenefs, great tenfion, with little flatulency : the 
vomiting is fometimes accompanied with faeces 5 the cof- 
tivenefs, with bloody (trainings: it terminates, where 
not fatal, in a free dejeftion of theinfarfted matter. Dr. 
Good gives three varieties. 
cc. A vifeido meconio, from vifeid meconium. Colica me¬ 
conialis, Sanv. Cull. 
£. A facibus indurulh, from indurated fteces. C. fterco- 
rea, Cull. 
y. Ab enterolilho, from inteftinal concretions. C. cal- 
culofa, Cull. Ileus calculofus, Snuv. —The early volumes 
of the Phil.Tranf. contain fome very extraordinary cafes 
of this kind. The moil Angular is in No. 3. p. 68. anno 
t6Si. continued in No. 181. p. 94. anno 1686. by Dr. 
Konig, of Bern. The patient, Margaret Lower, a young 
woman of twenty-five, difeharged continually the con¬ 
tents of the inteftines, and even the clyfters that were 
injefted, by the mouth, and at length a number of 
(tones as hard as flint, fome in fragments, fome of the 
fize of peafe, others of that of filberts. A clafliing of 
Hones againft each other was felt by preffing the hand 
upon the abdomen : there was great conftipation, fevere 
gripings, dyfury; and the urine, when voided, was often 
loaded with a gravelly matter. The aliment and injec¬ 
tions being conftantly returned by the mouth, Dr. Konig 
defifted /'or four months from offering her either meat, drink, 
or medicine of any kind, excepting occafionally a fpoon- 
ful of oil of almonds. Blood was nowand then vomited 
from the violence of the fpafmodic aClion of the ftomach ; 
and frequently urine, to the amount of three or four 
ounces at a time, of a ftrong tafte and fmell. The dif¬ 
eafe feems to have lafted, with remiffions, from January 
1678 to February 1683, at which period the hiftoryis ab¬ 
ruptly dropped, though the patient feems to have been 
in a ftate of recovery. It was preceded by the appear¬ 
ance of veficular eruptions in the lkin, and was probably 
produced by their repullion. The chemical examination 
of the calculi is loofe and unfatisfaClory. 
6. Colica callofa. This fpecies of colic differs mate¬ 
rially from all the preceding; for here th»contraction of 
the mufcular fibres is limited to a fmali portion of the in- 
teftine; and, analogous to what we obferve in the ure¬ 
thra and other membranous canals, the repetition of this 
aClion often ends in a certain permanent!}'-contracted 
ftate of the part affeCted. In the early Itages, however, 
this feems merely a diminifhed fphere of contraction ac¬ 
quired by the fibres in queftion ; for they are (till capable 
of dilatation, and no thickening of fubftance is at firft 
perceptible. This ftate cannot however continue long; 
the ftriCture becomes thickened, and fomewhat indurated, 
and the paffage of faeces in a great degree interrupted. 
The fituation in which we meet with this ftriCture is 
more commonly about the termination of the colon, and 
at the projection of the facrum, than any other part of 
the inteftinal canal : and, when one ftriCture is difeovered 
in this fituation, there is often another a few inches 
lower in the gut. This does not, however, uniformly 
happen, a ftriCture-being often met with about the termi¬ 
nation of the colon, where there is none in the inteftine ; 
and the fame impediment has been found between three 
and four inches from the anus, where there has been none 
higher. But thefe contractions occur fo exclufively in 
moll cafes about the figmoid flexure of the colon, and 
near its termination in the reChim, that this part fhould 
he carefully examined in every cafe of obftruCtion. 
Although the above parts of the colon are the mod 
obnoxious to ftriChires, yet it is evident the complaint 
may take place in any part of it. “ I have once feen,”- 
lays Dr. Baillie, “o.ne of the vulvulte canniventes much 
R r longer 
