Volume 1

The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame ... To which are added Practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism [partly translated and condensed from the French of MM. Guilbert and Hallé, as drawn up for the 'Dictionnaire des sciences médicales' in 1817] in all their proteian forms. An essay / By James Johnson.

James Johnson

Date:: 1818

Credit: The influence of the atmosphere, more especially the atmosphere of the British Isles, on the health and functions of the human frame ... To which are added Practical researches on the pathology, treatment, and prevention of gout and rheumatism [partly translated and condensed from the French of MM. Guilbert and Hallé, as drawn up for the 'Dictionnaire des sciences médicales' in 1817] in all their proteian forms. An essay / By James Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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BOWEL COMPLAINTS. $1 best antacid, as it subsequently proves laxative, and a small piece of Rhubarb chewed an hour before dinner, will excite the salivary and gastric secretions, so as to prove very bene- ficial to the subsequent digestive process. Indeed too much attention can scarcely be paid to the complete mastication of food, for a torpor seems to prevail through the whole secreting surface of the alimentary canal, and where any part of the tube is excited, the impulse is communicated to the whole. For that painful affection of the stomach termed Gastro- dynia, the Oxyd of Bismuth taken in doses of four grains three or four times a day in any aromatic mixture is cer- tainly very eflicacious. Sect. I] I.—-cuTANEO-INTESTINAL SYMPATHY ; OR, OBSERVATIONS ON THOSE DERANGEMENTS OF THE INTESTINES OCCASIONED, OR AGGRA- VATED BY ATMOSPHERICAL IMPRES- SIONS ON THE SURFACE. THERE is certainly no cause of functional disorder in the bowels so general and frequent as that resulting from external impressions on the skin, whether operating by direct Sympathy, or as producing lesion of function in the stomach and liver, and thereby affecting the intestines secondarily. Suppressed perspiration, and cold or wet applied to the feet producing diarrhoea and colic, afford familiar but convincing proofs of the intimate sympathy subsisting between the organs in question. We shall therefore proceed to notice the principal diseases produced in this way, Ist.—Inflammation of the intestines or Enteritis. This dangerous complaint is generally brought on by atmosphe- rical vicissitudes, or cold applied to some part of the skin, during or subsequent to, a state of perspiration ; it is also occasionally produced by cold drink taken when the body is heated, inthe same way as inflammation of the stomach. It is not my object to describe the sympioms of diseases, but principally to illustrate their causes, and add a few observations on the means of cure. When we find a fixed pain in any part of the abdomen, especially near the navel, attended with fever, quick, but small pulse, gastric irrita- bility, obstinate costiveness, and pain on external pressure, we may be pretty certain that there is inflammation in the

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