Observations on the diseases of the rectum / by T.B. Curling.

Thomas Blizard Curling

Date:: 1855

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the diseases of the rectum / by T.B. Curling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

132/184 (page 116)

and liquid feces pass with the urine; and in females, motions are discharged at the vagina. The passage of part of the contents of the bowels by these unnatural channels greatly increases the misery of the patient's condition, rendering him an object of disgust to him- self, and offensive to those about him. An ulcerated opening into the peritoneum, allowing the escape of feculent matter into the abdomen, may excite perito- nitis, and thus bring the case to a fatal termination; or, the powers of life gradually giving way, the patient becomes hectic and exhausted, and worn out by this painful and distressing malady. There is great variety, however, in the degree of suffering, and even of con- stitutional derangement, attending this disease. The sufferings are in some instances excruciating; in others, comparatively slight. I had a man under my care whose anus was blocked up with carcinomatous fungus, and who had an opening into his urethra; but the pains were not severe, nor had his constitution suffered to any great extent. His chief complaint was of gas escaping from the urethra. Cancer of the rectum occurs generally in middle age. I have met with it rather more frequently in women than in men, and have found it a less common com- plaint than simple stricture. All that can be obtained from remedies in this ter- rible disease is palliation of the symptoms and ease from pain. Any kind of mechanical interference, by dilatation or otherwise, irritates the parts, hastens the development of disease, and increases the patient's sufferings. The introduction of a bougie is always, in- deed, hazardous, and I have met with one case, and seen the preparation of another, in which the practitioner, in using this instrument, passed it through the softened