Indigestion : a manual of the diagnosis and modern treatment of the different varieties of dyspepsia / by George Herschell.

  • Herschell, George, 1856-1914.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Indigestion : a manual of the diagnosis and modern treatment of the different varieties of dyspepsia / by George Herschell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/216 (page 24)
    chloric acid is relatively small. In this form of dyspepsia there has been no error of diet, the fault is a diminished secretion of hydrochloric acid. The conversion of carbo- hydrates, such as sugar, into lactic acid, can only take place under certain favourable circumstances, which are only nor- mally present in the first half hour or so of digestion. In order that the lactic acid change may take place, the amount of free hydrochloric acid in the stomach must be less than -07 per cent. As soon as it reaches this amount the formation of lactic acid ceases ; and as the average quantity of free hydrochloric acid present during active digestion is as much as -25 per cent., it can be easily seen that the formation of lactic acid must soon cease. Thus we see that in the normal state of things the quantity of lactic acid formed must be very small, and any increase in it is always an evidence of disease, and shows us that free hydrochloric acid is not being secreted in normal amount. 2. The hydrochloric acid may be present in too great quantity. It is secreted in so large an amount that it immediately neutralizes the alkaline saliva, and thus stops the action of the pytalin, which we have seen (p. 5) con- tinues in the normal state for some time after the food has reached the stomach. 3. In the two former cases the hydrochloric acid is only secreted when food has been introduced into the stomach; but there is another class of cases in which a highly acid gastric juice is poured out when the stomach is entirely empty. This condition has been termed ' gastroxynsis,' and 'gastroxia' by Rossbach and Rosenthal respectively. It was first described by Reichmann* in 1882, and after- wards by V. den Velden.t some cases occurring in men .in which the acid secretion could be drawn off between * Berl. klin. Wochenschr., XXIV., p. 109. f Volkinarms Saminl. klin. Vortrage inn. Med., No. 96, 1886, p. 2611.