Observations on the nature of malignant cholera, with a view to establish correct principles of its preventions and treatment : drawn up at the request of the Westminster Medical Society / by A. P. W. Philip.

  • Philip, Alexander Philip Wilson, 1770-1847.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the nature of malignant cholera, with a view to establish correct principles of its preventions and treatment : drawn up at the request of the Westminster Medical Society / by A. P. W. Philip. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    food. I have found it the best rule for the patient to leave off with such an appetite that about one-third more could be taken with pleasure; and although the appetite is not satis- fied at the moment, in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour it will be so ; that is, when time is given for the whole of the gastric juice to combine with the food. This rule, for reasons just given, may sometimes deceive ; but its errors may be very effectually corrected by the pa- tient's observing whether any sense of oppression succeeds the meal, which will not fail to ensue if any of the food remains uiidjo-ested. Nothing in the diet of the dyspeptic is of greater conse- quence than making it simple. When we eat of a variety of dishes every new dish excites a fresh appetite, and it is im- possible for us to judge when such a quantity as the stomach can digest is taken ; and in this way injury would arise, although all the articles were of equally easy digestion. Thus, although no general rule can be laid down, each may ascertain the quantity which suits his own stomach, a point of essential consequence; because any part of the food remaining undigested, is nothing less than a cause which, if frequently repeated, must necessarily baffle the means of cure. All hard animal substances are of difficult digestion ; and all oily, stringy, and membranous substances, whether animal or vegetable; the fat of bacon, toasted like bread before the fire, that the flame may not render it empyreumatic, in some patients, being the only exception I know. All fruits and fresh vegetables, and whatever else is inclined to ferment; all the fermented liquors of this country, for example, with the exception of distilled spirits, which are in another way the most pernicious of all, are usually oppressive to a weak stomach. Of vegetables a mealy potatoe is, to most stomachs, the best; and peas, beans, and cabbage, the worst.