Address on some relationships of indigestion : being the first Hunterian Society's lecture for the session 1897-98, delivered on Oct. 13th, 1897 / by W.H. Allchin.

  • Allchin, William Henry, Sir, 1846-1911.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on some relationships of indigestion : being the first Hunterian Society's lecture for the session 1897-98, delivered on Oct. 13th, 1897 / by W.H. Allchin. 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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    inhabitants of the canal, are accessory to and in some degree an aid to the regular chemical processes carried out by the secretions, although they are scarcely to be regarded as absolutely essential. But it may be easily seen that whether from the ingestion of toxic organisms or from the perverted action of those which are under ordinary circumstances harmless (such, for instance, as their having to deal with material of an unusual character) poisonous substances may be formed and indigestion set up. 4. Another source of disturbance in the process of digestion is connected with a function of the alimentary mucous membrane and its glands, which is too often overlooked. It is forgotten that this membrane has besides its extensive secretory capacities a duty to discharge as a channel of excretion. Little is accurately known of this it is true, and it is probably when there is some general morbid state existing, such as fever, that this property of the mucous membrane is best appreciated. In this respect, as, indeed, in many others, the membrane may be compared with the skin, the eliminative powers of which even of products of intestinal fermentation are well known, as are also the results of their arrest. There is also good reason for believing that the accumulation of gases found in the stomach and intestine owe their origin in part to direct transfusion from the blood, especially when rapid distension takes place after the removal of ascitic fluid in hysteria and cardio-pulmonary disease. 5. Ordinarily the products of digestion as they become diffusible are absorbed from the stomach and still more from the small intestine into the blood and lymphatic currents, and not only the digesta but also the greater part of the many pints of the various secretions that are daily passed into the canal. It may not unreasonably be surmised that the gradual removal of these materials facilitates the necessary changes in that which still remains in the tube and that a failure in their absorption interferes with the normal course of digestion. In this way, then, such conditions as may interfere with absorption, a function quite distinct from that of digestion, may become the cause of a very considerable dyspepsia. Having thus indicated seriatim the various directions from which digestion may be immediately interfered with, it must not be supposed that each acts alone, for seldom can such be the case. Far more frequently the causal or precedent con- ditions are a complex the factors of which interact in the production of each other as they also do in bringing about r he diseased state. In order, however, to arrive at a more compre- hensive conception of the causal relationships of indigestion
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