Constipation and its modern treatment / by George Herschell.

  • George Herschell
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Constipation and its modern treatment / by George Herschell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    think that we should define constipation in the following terms:—Constipation is a condition in which a normal daily amount of food is taken, and its equiva- lent of debris is not daily discharged naturally from the body ivithout the aid of artificial means. In pure constipation all the debris is eventually discharged from the body. When this does not occur, there is fgecal retention. Very few cases of pure constipation are met with in practice, as they are nearly always com- plicated with some degree of faecal retention. This may be temporary and able to be removed by pur- gative medicines, or it may be permanent. In the present paper, I do not include the con- sideration of cases where the total amount of food taken by the mouth does not reach the duodenum, as in pyloric stenosis, but only those in which the normal amount leaves the stomach. Neither shall I speak of acute constipation, which is rather to be studied under the head of obstruction of the bowels. NoEMAL Peristalsis. In order that we may rightly comprehend how constipation may arise, it is necessary that we should study the processes that precede normal de- B 2
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