The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart.

  • Sir James Goodhart, 1st Baronet
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of children : a short introduction to their study / by James Frederic Goodhart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    75/752 page 51
    I CirAFTER IV. DIARRHOEA-DYSENTERY—UNNATURAL STOOLS. Some writers have described many forms of dinrrlm’a, and would thus make the subject a complicated one for the student; but there is no corresponding' morbid anatomy for the different kinds of loosene.ss of bowels, and the results of treatment suj'gest a very simple division. Diarrhoea is the sj’inptom of disordered or excessive function on the part of the neuro-muscular apparatus of the intestines, and any organ which depends for its action upon organic muscular fibre is liable to such functional derangements as may by their continuance become a coniirmed habit, ami yet have no apprecialde morbid anatomy. The nteru.s may persistently abort time after time from the irritation of a syphilitic foetus, for example, and show in itself no re.ason for .so <loing. The stomach may repeateilly cast its contents in similar fashion ; and in children, and less frequently in adults also, diarrhrea may continue for months, resisting all treatment, without aderpiate cause in any structural lesion, d'ho student must not therefore conclude, as he is often inclined to do, that, the diarrhoea being chronic and in- tractable, it is due to ulceration of the bowel ; much less that not only is there ulceration, but that that ulceration is tubercular. The ilivision I propose to make as simple, and according with practice, is into acute and chronic diarrhcca, and m limina this generalization may bo made;— Jjoosencss of bowels whicdi h.as existed .any length of time should be closely investigated, as it is pretty sure to prove ti'oublesome to stt']>, and may indicate i: 2
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