Researches on the pathology of the intestinal canal. Part II. On the inflammatory affections / by John Abercrombie.

Date:
[1820]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on the pathology of the intestinal canal. Part II. On the inflammatory affections / by John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    to which a little assafeetida may be added ; but I think I have seen the greatest advantage in this condition from injections con- taining bark in powder in large quantities. Mild laxatives may be given, but medicines that would act strongly are to be avoid- ed, These excite for the time, but when their action is over the parts are only still farther exhausted, become again distended, and may pass into gangrene. The disease is a loss of muscu- lar action which is left by the inflammation, and it requires the most delicate management. It has frequently an alarming appearance, and may leave for a considerable time a deranged action of the parts, which often assumes the characters of orga- nic or mesenteric disease. A boy, aged six, had acute pain in the abdomen, much increased by pressure and by inspiration ; short, anxious breathing; pulse extremely frequent. He was bled from the arm, and took some laxative medicine which ope- rated, and he was very much relieved. He then did well for two clay^, when, on visiting him at night, I found him oppressed and restless ; countenance anxious; pulse above 14-0 ; the belly enlarged and tympanitic, and painful on pressure. Injections, con- taining bark in powder, and some tincture of assafeetida, were given every three hours with great relief, with friction, &c. Under this treatment the affection soon subsided, and in a few days he was able to be out of bed, but he continued feeble and sallow, with some cough, bad appetite, frequent pulse> and a withered emaciated appearance. Being sent to the country he recovered gradually, and is now in perfect health, but he continued in the state which I have mentioned for several months. I am per- suaded that many cases, especially in children, which assume t le appearance of mesenteric disease, depend upon a morbid condi- tion of the muscular action of the canal, which impedes the pro- cess of digestion and assimilation. It is treated by good air and exercise, tepid bath, friction of the abdomen, with gentle com- pression, and vegetable bitters, as the Colombo powder, com- bined with small doses of rhubarb or aloes. 3. A state different from the former, in which the abdomen is somewhat enlarged but hard, almost resembling, in some cases, a mass of organic disease. This is a formidable symp- tom, but if it occur after the inflammation is subdued it may be recovered from. The nature of it is obscure. It is certain- ly connected with some degree of intestinal distention, but it is not tympanitic ; it is hard and tense, sometimes painful on pre^ sure, and has an alarming appearance. A young man, ag^ 17, whom I attended in a severe attack of enteritis, was Ire from complaint about the 7th day from the attac . ^ 9th his pulse began to rise again; and his belly, especia y a