The water-cure in chronic disease : an exposition of the causes, progress and terminations of various chronic diseases of the digestive organs ... and of their treatment by water, and other hygienic means / by James Manby Gully.

  • Gully, James Manby, 1808-1883.
Date:
[1847?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The water-cure in chronic disease : an exposition of the causes, progress and terminations of various chronic diseases of the digestive organs ... and of their treatment by water, and other hygienic means / by James Manby Gully. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/476 (page 14)
    as formerly. The organic tone of the blood-vessels ia diminished, in consequence of the exhausted state of their nerves. The organic sympathy between the vessels and the blood they contain is diminished, from the same cause; add to which, that in the interval between this and the former attack, the membrane of the stomach has not been in condition to afford strong gastric juice, diges- tion has been of a character not to make good blood, and- the want of this operates on the vessels of the dis- eased membrane. So that, looking to the vessels them- selves, to the nerves which influence them, and the blood that circulates in them, the whole of the morbid organ, or part of organ, is in a still lower state of vitality than before. Nevertheless—and this must never be lost sight of— this diminished vitality in the portion of the diseased stomach is a cause of gveat irritation elsewhere. The phenomena of headache, fever, &c., are not so intense as before. But although the pain of head, heat of skin, &c., are not such ‘prominent signals of the stomach disorder as before, that is because their vitality is diminished : they do not respond with the same Augour and acuteness to the digestive irritation as on the first attack. Still, the mischief, both in the stomach and the brain, and its nerves, as well as the skin, has advanced; their minute action is further than ever from the standard of healthy life. The two forced^ false, and imperfect crises ha^m left the stomach in a more irritable and more feeble condition than ever. But what of that] Belief has been procured, speedily and with small trouble. Business and pleasure have scarcely, if at all, been interrupted; the only disagi'eeable lias been the taste of the jiliysic, and perhaps a little griping of the boAvels from it. The patient knows not of, and the prescriber cares not for (if he knoAA^s), the small spot of lingering irritation that is left behind, to be again lighted up and again extinguished by forced deluges of bile and mucus, until the stomach itself passes from irritation into disorganizing ulceration, or cancer, and, extending its morbid sympathies to the brain, spinal cord, skin, and lower boAvels, kills the patient Avith apoplexy or palsy, or allows him to drag on life, a prey to the miseries of hypo- chondriasis, to piles and rectum disease, or to an inveterate skill disease.