Volume 2
A dictionary of practical medicine, comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different epochs of life. With ... prescriptions, ... bibliography ... formulae / [James Copland].
- James Copland
- Date:
- 1832-1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine, comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases, morbid structures and the disorders especially incidental to climates, to the sex, and to the different epochs of life. With ... prescriptions, ... bibliography ... formulae / [James Copland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
47/344 (page 361)
![intestinal canal will come first under consi- deration; and neat, those which are symptomatic of, or complicated with, other diseases. In treating of the former, those states which are the most simple, and apparently consist of func- tional disturbance of the bowels, will be first noticed, and subsequently those which proceed from more complicated or organic causes. As I agree with Bursrert, Cutten, Goop, Aprr- cROMBIE, Monro, and others, that ileus is often either an aggravated state, or advanced stage, of colic, or a consequence of organic or other causes affecting the calibre or canal of some part of the small or large intestines, I shall treat of it at this place, and after the more simple or less dangerous forms of colic have been discussed. 5. I. Conic CHIEFLY AND PRIMARILY FROM FUNCTIONAL DrsorpERS OF THE BowE Ls. i, Simple Colic. Syn. Colica Convulsiva, Bonet; C. Spasmodica, Hoffmann; C. Fla- tulenta, Good, &c.; C. Nerveuse, Chomel ; C. Nervosa, et C. Spasmodica, Schmidtmann. Crassir. I.Crass, I. Orver (Author). Derin. Acute pain inthe bowels, with occasional partial remissions, fiatulent distension, or spasmodic contractions, or both, at the same time, relieved by pressure and the expulsion of flatus. 6. There appear to be three morbid conditions of the intestinal canal, which more or less exist in the simplest as well as in the most severe and complicated forms of colic, and which evidently depend upon depressed vital, power of the diges- tive canal: lst, Morbidly increased sensibility and irritability of some part or the whole of the bowels ; 2d, Irregular distension and spasmodic constriction of different parts of their canal ; and, 3d, More or less copious generation of flatus in their tract, occasioning great distension and irregular reaction of the muscular tunics — the second morbid condition adduced. Accord- ing as either of these states predominates above the others, the attack assumes a nervous, a spasmodic, or a fatulent character; and it has thus acquired these specific appellations from dif- ferent authors. 7.A. The nervous form of the complaint occurs most commonly in females, and in persons of a nervous and irritable temperament, passing a sedentary or indolent life, and of a costive habit of body; sometimes without any evident cause, but often after inattention to the state of the bowels, exposure to cold, or some mental emotion or excitement. The attack is usually sudden, and the pain is felt in one or more places in the abdomen, but shifts its place frequently, and is exacerbated at irregular intervals. The face is pale and anxious; the abdomen is irregularly contracted, and pressure of it often affords slight relief. During the severity of the pains, a cold leipothymia, or sinking, is frequently complained of. The bowels are constipated, and borborygmi are constant. The duration of the attack is usu- ally short—from one to several hours; and it generally terminates favourably ; but repeated returns of the affection are very common, upon errors of diet, and from mental inquietude. 8. B. The more flatulent form of colic presents greater distension of the abdomen, the expulsion of flatus giving ease. The distension and pain are often traced along the course of the colon, a ‘ 36] and are most complained of in the situation of the sigmoid flexure and cecum. The quantity of flatus generated is often very great, and it evidently proceeds chiefly from irritation of the mucous surface of the bowels, giving rise to the separation of a gaseous fluid from the blood by the vessels of this surface; the matters retained in the prima via being insufficient to furnish, by their decomposition, —- granting that they undergo this change, — so great.a quantity of flatus as is ge- nerally voided. Owing to the irritation produced by the flatus, the bowels are inordinately dis- tended in one part, and irregularly constricted in another; the part which was contracted, losing its tone, and becoming, after a time, greatly dis- tended, and the distended portion experiencing, at intervals, irregular spasmodic constrictions. Thus the retained flatus is propelled from one part to the other, occasioning griping, shifting pains, and rumbling noises, or borboryymi, of the abdomen. The bowels are always constipated; and when evacuations are procured, they chiefly consist of hard lumps, and are accompanied with the escape of much flatus; the secreting functions of the bowels being evidently impeded. ‘1 his modifica- tion of the complaint, as well as the preceding, is frequent in hysterical females, and persons of in- dolent habits, living much on vegetable diet, whose intestinal and biliary secretions ave scanty, acrid, or otherwise vitiated; and their digestive functions weakened by indulgences. 9. C. The more spasmodic form of colic is in many cases merely a somewhat aggravated state of the preceding ; the extremely painful spasmo- dic constriction predominating above the flatu- lent distension, and extending more or less to the abdominal muscles, giving rise to severe and irregular contractions, oiten with retraction, of the abdominal parietes. Whilst the two pre- ceding varieties are very seldom attended by sickness or vomiting, unless in the severest states, this variety is frequently accompanied with this symptom ; and, in its worst forms, vomiting, upon taking substances into the stomach, is very gene- ral. Constipation is also very obstinate ; inju- dicious attempts at relieving it often increasing the vomiting, and converting simple colic into either enteritis or simple ileus. This form of colic often attacks those of spare habits of body, of the hypochondriacal and bilous tempera- ments, who live chiefly on coarse vegetable food, and are addicted to fermented or spirituous liquors. 10. i. Colic from the injurious Nature or Quantity of the Ingesta. — C. Acci- dentalis, Willis and Cullen; C. Végétale, Chomel ; C. Cibaria, Good. Derin. Severe twisting, griping pains in the abdomen, with vomiting, and rigid contractions of the abdominal parietes, followed, im some cases, by griping alvine evacuations, and looseness. 11. A. This species of colic presents various mo- difications, according to the nature of the offend- ing cause; and ithas been accordingly differently described and named. Its states vary greatly in severity, according to the nature of the ingesta occasioning it, whether those of a solid or fluid kind. It may be here remarked, that the colic of Poitou, or colica Pictonum (which name has been very generally confounded with colice pictorum, or painters’ colic), and the form of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33285330_0002_0047.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
