On the loss of weight, blood-spitting, and lung disease / by Horace Dobell.

  • Dobell, Horace, 1828-1917.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the loss of weight, blood-spitting, and lung disease / by Horace Dobell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    be withdrawn from the diet till the normal function is restored. In obedience to this rule we administer Pancreatic Emulsions of fat to patients, who have lost the power of assimilating fat without this artificial assistance, while we adopt all practicable means of restoring the normal function. (See pp. 225—232.) Rule 2.—Is inseparable from the first, and it is this :—No essential of a normal diet must be withdrawn, without an attempt being made either to supply to the organism in some other way the ingredient of which it is deprived, or to suspend those functions which call for a supply of this ingredient. Thus, to take a simple illustration :—Sup- pose the power of digesting meat to be lost through a deficient secre- tion of gastric juice, meat must be withdrawn from the diet till the lost function is restored, or else an artificial digestive fluid must be in- troduced ; or if it is impossible by these means to maintain the diges- tion of meat, the physiological ingredients of meat must be supplied in the form of some albuminoid solution ; or, finally, if this cannot be done, then those functions which principally waste the albuminoid tissues of the body must be placed as far as possible in a state of rest ; muscular action must be suspended until the function is restored. Rule 3.—If an undue waste of any elements of normal nutrition is found to be going on in the organism, and the means remain of appro- priating those elements from the food, they must be supplied in the food in quantities as much in excess of those proper to the normal diet of health as will be sufficient to supply the waste, until it is stopped. In Bright’s disease of the kidney, for example, there is no loss of the power to appropriate the albuminoids from the food, whereas a con- stant loss of albumen is going on through the kidneys, which must be met by proportionate increase of the albuminoids in the diet. But in following this rule, in this particular case, it will be necessary to ob- serve certain precautions, dictated by a very important Principle of Dietetics, viz., to obtain rest for every organ while it is suffering under active disease, by removing from the diet such elements as increase its functions. These are conditions which it is not easy to fulfil con- sistently with maintaining healthy nutrition, for the healthy nutrition of the kidney requires a supply of albuminoid materials, while its function is increased by any surplus of these materials in the organism; and when its function is interrupted by disease, a proportion of albumi- noids in the diet, necessary to the healthy nutrition of the organism generally, will be tantamount to an excess as regards the function of the kidney, and the accumulation of retained excretory matters will press injuriously upon the affected organ. Other medical aids than diet must, therefore, be brought to bear; some auxiliary organs which are not damaged must be stimulated for the time, to save the diseased part from undue pressure upon its functions. Rule 4.—When through any defect in the organism, tho elements of