A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on derangements of the liver, internal organs, and nervous system : pathological and therapeutical. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    I j wedical DEPARTMENT, Pathology of Dysentety:. OQOLFOE, ^ ed by the irritable circular fibres of the intestine, and rings or strictures will augment the tormina and griping in the bowels. • , _ •' ' In this situation, Nature evidently attempts to restore, by reaction, the balance of the circulation and excitability, to- gether with a healthy state of the functions of the skin and liver; but she is less successful in this disease than in most others. Where she ultimately gains her end, it is where the local plethora or inflammation is reduced by the discharge from the mesenteric vessels, without occasioning much or- ganic derangement in the bowels, or in the glandular organs of the body. This being effected, the general balance of the circulation is often restored in consequence. But in a great majority of cases, when the disease is vio- lent, the natural exertions of the constitution either hasten the fatal catastrophe, or produce such lesion of structure and function in the chylo-poietic viscera as induces a tedious chronic state of the complaint, which is very difficult to manage. The febrile symptoms have always appeared to me, to be at first in proportion to the general disturbance in the balance of the circulation and excitement; but afterwards, they may be kept up or modified by the extent of the or- ganic derangement sustained by the viscera during the ge- neral feverish state of the system, The discharge of blood by stool, appears to be proportioned to the local congestion in the vessels of the portal and mesenteric circles. Hence we see that, in tropical climates, where the biliary organs are so generally deranged, either in function or structure, dy- sentery is frequently accompanied by great discharges of blood from the bowels, in consequence of the check which the portal circulation meets in the liver; and hence also, the liver itself, from a state of congestion and torpid secretion runs suddenly, and with very few premonitory symptoms, into a state of suppuration, or irrecoverable disorganization. In this, as in every other disease, various theories have led to various modes of practice. Thus, those who set down infiammation as the proximate cause of dysentery, consider blood-letting as the grand indication of cure, prescribing su- dorifics, laxatives, mercury, 8;c. as subordinate agents, or merely auxiliaries. And in this way they will generally suc- ceed in common cases. Others, considering with Sydenham, Mosely, and many writers on dysentery, that the disease is a fever turned in on the bowels, from suppressed perspiration, have recourse to sudorifics, to turn it out again; and tr,ulv' in this way they will often succeed:—for if they are sue-