A dissertation upon the cholera infantum : to which are added, rules and regulations, as preventive means of the autumnal diseases of children : which gained the Boylstonian prize, for the year 1803 / by James Mann.

  • Mann, James, 1759-1832.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation upon the cholera infantum : to which are added, rules and regulations, as preventive means of the autumnal diseases of children : which gained the Boylstonian prize, for the year 1803 / by James Mann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    *3 the prevailing theory, that he, notwithstanding his well executed experiments, has in his practice adopted its language and doctrines. In this place, let me afk thofe, who imagine that the bile is ever hurtful in its progrefs through the alimentary canal, at what time it is converted from a falutary, to an offenfive fluid ? Does it affume this laft condition, in confequence of a deranged ftate of the liver ? or does the change take place after its lodgment in the gall-bladder, or after it has paffed into the duodenum ? What are the cau- fes which fubject it to this change, if it takes place ; and what are its powers, or chymical properties, after it has put on this vitiated ftate ? In anfwer, it may be again alleged, as it has al- ready been, that an unufual quantity of bile, and an acrid ftate of it may be produced by morbid effluvia firft lodged in the faliva ; thence conveyed and lodged in the ftomach and inteftines ; here, either perverting, or totally deftroying, the digef- tive powers of the vifcera ; thereby a putrid, or highly corronve mafs is generated, inftead of a mild and bland fubflance to give nourifhment to animal life. Thus far we fuppofe is highly probable, and this is fufficient to account for many forms of dif- eafe, occafioned by the operation of unnatural ftim- uli upon the llomach, and within the inteftinal ca- nal. But, that the mefenteric veins mould be- come loaded with a putrid mafs of indigefted fub- ftances, which are conveyed through the venae portorum, into the liver, whereby this important vifcus becomes difordered ; and the bile is thrown into the inteftines, and up the ftomach, in unufual quantities, and in an acrid ftate, there to diforgan- ize,* are not fo eafily demonftrated. For we have no evidence, that the abforbents of the inteftines do ever take up fluids, except/^, as are conge- * Dottor .Samuel Brown's inaugural differtation.