The surgical treatment of wounds and obstruction of the intestines / by Edward Martin and H.A. Hare.
- Edward Martin
- Date:
- 1891
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The surgical treatment of wounds and obstruction of the intestines / by Edward Martin and H.A. Hare. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![modic upon all unstripcd mnscular fibre, and in the large doses here given depresses the peri])heral ends of the splanchnic or inhibitory intestinal nerves. In this way the muscular fibres, which are in spasm, are relaxed and the peristaltic waves set free. The value of the opium also is apparent, for it allays and prevents the reflex muscular spasm and hence the pain and inflammation. Obstinate constipation after the ingestion of irritant foods, such as putrid meat, will often be relieved by opium and belladonna as effectively as if the patient was purged by an ordinary purgative. Very frequently in acute peritonitis tympanitis becomes not only a very painful, but even a dangerous symptom, the distention of the belly being very great. This may be greatly relieved by the employment of turpentine stupes, and in some cases by the rectal injection of the milk of asafoetida, or better still: turpentine, 1 drachm ; milk of asafoetida, 3 ounces ; and warm water, 4 ounces. Not content with having made a vast stride forward during the past few years, abdominal surgery brings with it not only new methods of treating disease in this region by the knife, but also has given us a method of healing peritonitis by the use of saline purgatives, which is certainly of greatest value in those sudden inflammatory conditions which occasionally spring into life after operations upon the abdominal contents. It will be remembered that Mr. Lawson Tait has been the chief advocate of this treatment for several years, and that the wonderful results which he obtained, the reputation of the reporter, and the complete reversal of all our ideas concerning the treatment of the disease, have called forth not only an enormous number of trials of the method in this country, but have also brought forth two opposing factions in the profession. The first of these is chiefly of surgeons; the second of persons who, in a long experience, have reached good results by older methods, and who are generally physicians. The first class dogmatically assert that the physician should turn over every case of peritonitis to the surgeon to be opened, searched, and purged; the second class do not deny that saline purgatives do good in the hands of the surgeon, but are more conservative in their opinions concerning the general use of such, measured in all cases of peritonitis. Again, it would seem to be impossible at the present time to assert that peritonitis may be either idiopathic or traumatic with- out bringing upon one's head a storm of criticism, for on the one](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21213525_0075.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
