On chronic colitis as a cause of fatigue / by Sir Lauder Brunton.
- Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
- Date:
- 1909
Licence: In copyright
Credit: On chronic colitis as a cause of fatigue / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[Reprinted from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports, Vol. XLIV.] SAINT BARTHOLOMEW’S HOSPITAL REPORTS. ON CHRONIC COLITIS AS A CAUSE OF FATIGUE. BY SIR LAUDER BRUNTON, Bart., M.D., F.R.S. I have been lately struck by the frequency with which patients suffering from chronic colitis complain of being always tired. So much so is this the case, that I have been led several times to discover colitis by this complaint when I should have other- wise overlooked it. In such cases the bowels may be either constipated or loose, or more frequently the two conditions alternate. But constipation is so frequent a complaint that, unless some other symptom, such as the continued weariness, leads one to investigate the point, the presence of mucus in the motions may be readily overlooked. Many years ago I attributed this weakness, which is so great as sometimes to resemble poisoning by curare, to the absorption of peptones or albumoses from the intestinal canal.1 The recent observations by Weichhardt render it probable that the weariness may be due, not so much to these substances, as to toxines formed by microbes. Weichhardt found that not only could poisons be expressed from exhausted muscles, which had the effect of producing extreme fatigue in other animals into which they were injected, but similar poisons could be obtained from albuminous substances, and also from tubercle bacilli, by pro- cesses of reduction and oxidation.2 It would appear that 1 The Practitioner, Nov. 1880, p. 326. 2 Weichhardt, Munch. Med. Wochensch., 1904, pp. 12, 2121 ; 1905, p. 1234; 1906, p. 7. VOL. XLIV. A](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22429840_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
