The treatment of disease in children / by G.A. Sutherland.

  • Sutherland, G.A. (George Alexander), 1861-1939.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of disease in children / by G.A. Sutherland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    189/416 (page 181)
    Applying these facts clinically, Dr. Kendall intro¬ duced the feeding with lactose with a twofold object; to furnish to the host a readily assimilable food, requiring a minimum of energy to metabolize it, and to change the character of the metabolism of the dysenteric flora from the proteolytic to the fermentative type. This change in the type of the intestinal flora is particularly desirable to prevent further intoxication of the host, and to give him a better chance of combating the poisons already absorbed. The treatment of acute summer diarrhoea is commenced in the usual way with a dose of castor oil or other cathartic to clean out the intestinal tract, and nothing but sterile water is given by the mouth for twelve or fifteen hours. Lactose feeding should be begun within twenty-four hours, and if possible within eighteen hours. The longer the carbohydrate is withheld, the longer the dysentery bacilli have a free field to produce toxins. Lactose, 5% solution in sterile water, is given by the mouth for several days until the acute symptoms abate, or until it becomes apparent that the patient re¬ quires some nitrogenous food. This solution should be given in small amounts and frequently, so as to keep up a stream of the sugar in the alimentary canal, otherwise the proteolytes will be able to attack whatever nitrogenous substances may be present in the alimentary canal between the doses of lactose. The average amount given daily was thirty-six ounces. The return to some form of nitrogenous nourishment must be made cautiously, and at first only small amounts should be given, simultaneously with an excess of utilizable carbo-