Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry.

  • Jamieson Boyd Hurry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vicious circles in disease / by Jamieson B. Hurry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    retention of food. The dilatation increases the stasis and the stasis in its turn the dilatation : “ Dilatation may be the cause, accompaniment or sequel of chronic gastritis ; subacidity with fermentation and stagnation forms a Vicious Circle constituting Cohnheim’s so-called vinegar and gas factory, and may likewise be regarded as an important etiological factor.” 1 The timely use of an emetic may rapidly and com¬ pletely relieve the condition. Even a greatly dilated and over-loaded stomach may be braced up. The unburdening is followed by contraction and renewed functional activity. IV.—THE BREAKING OF THE CIRCLE BY OPERATION Surgery achieves some of her greatest triumphs by attacking the locum minoris resistentice and so breaking the Circle. Cholecystotomy. Biliary, renal, vesical and other calculi are all associated with reciprocal correlations established between the mucosa and the irritating calculus. Rolleston thus describes the Circle as¬ sociated with gall-stones : “ Although gall-stones are due to inflammation, of a comparatively mild character, of the gall-bladder, their presence predisposes to fresh infection of the gall-bladder and thus to cholecystitis and to a Vicious Circle.” 2 Here the surgeon can remove the calculus that is perpetuating the morbid condition. The pathological sequence is interrupted, and the mucosa returns to a more or less quiescent condition. 1 Osier and Macrae, System of Medicine, Vol. V., p. 285 ; Cohnheim, Lectures on General Pathology (N.S.S.), pp. 859, 862. 2 Diseases of the Liver, 1905, p. 746.