Handy book of medical information and advice ... / by a physician.

  • James Warburton Begbie
Date:
[1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handy book of medical information and advice ... / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/372 page 7
    is more than probable that some important viscus is affected. To such cases the term atrophy is, per- haps, in the present state of knowledge, not inappro- priately applied. From such a condition recovery may or may not take place. The more lasting it is, of course so much the more unfavourable is the issue likely to he. In its treatment the employment of all those means which tend to improve the general health of the patient is required—nourishing diet, invigorating air, the use of cod-liver oil, glycerine, the various preparations of steel, &c. (See Appendix.) Bile, including Bilious Headache, Bilious Fever, Bilious Diarrhoea (the term bile is derived from the Latin bilis). The disordered function of the great secreting organ the liver gives rise to many ailments, which, more generally than perhaps truth- fully, are in the popular acceptation ranged under the head of bile. What is meant by these several terms is, that the affections indicated are to be attributed to an increase, diminution, or alteration in the secre- tion of bile by the liver. Bile is a peculiar animal fluid, of a yellow or greenish colour, which, when secreted by the liver, either passes directly through the hepatic duct into the upper part of the bowels (duodenum), or, remaining for a time in the gall- bladder, a receptacle for the bile attached to the liver, thence passes by the cystic duct. That form of headache to which the term Bilious Headache is applied, though often connected with alteration of the hepatic function, is also frequently dependent on dis-
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