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.

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    the patient complaining of tlicm, and often dreading to cat from fear of these consequences; whilst in the second or op])ressive stage of brain complication, these abdominal sensations are infinitely less complained of, the patient mostly asserting that he has no stomach disorder, because he has no uneasy sensations after food, &c. In the former we have excessive activity, in the latter deficient evolu- tion, of brain power: in the former, sufficient blood in the brain to augment its function; in the latter, sufficient to oppress it. And we shall find, further on, that in retracing the steps to health, these two degrees of brain irritation are retraced also. There are several more circumstances in the progress of chronic disease which might be mentioned, but which, a.s they occur exclusively in individual maladies, are better l)Ostponed until these last are treated of. Instances of these circumstances are the variations of cough and expec- toration, ill certain stages of chronic lung disorder ; attacks of jaundice, and variations in the bile in the excretions of the bowels and kidneys, in chronic liver disease; and the appearance or non-appearance of chalky deposit, in the course of gout. IMeantime, the i3henomena common to all chronic diseases in their progress having been given, I pass on to speak of the terminations to which they are liable. These,—the causes not being removed, and irritation not avoided—are inevitably fatal if the seat of the chronic malady be in the viscera alone. If there be skin disease —i. e., an external irritation, at once symptomatic of, and counteracting to that internal irritation which is the main disease—not life perhaps, but life’s comfort, is more or less destroyed, similar negligence or malpractice as to causes being supposed. The death of the body in such instances is induced— 1st. By obstacles to the nutrition of the body, the process or waste meanwhile going on. 2nd. By the passage of chronic disease into organic disease. 3rd. By apoplectic congestion and functional stoppage of some important organ. 4th. By effusion of fluids into different cavities, either with or without ulceration of the viscera. I. In many cases these two first causes of death are combined, the organic disease being the obstacle to the