On pepsine / by M. Boudault ; translated by W. Stevens Squire.

  • Boudault, P.C.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On pepsine / by M. Boudault ; translated by W. Stevens Squire. 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.

    30/52 (page 30)
    80 regained more rnpidly, and the relapses have been less trouble- some than prior to the period when 1 began to use the Pepsine. I have also seen much benefit accrue from its employment even in cancer of the stomach, where the vomited matter plainly demonstrated that the liealthy changes in the aHment did not take place, and when the stomach was manifestly dilated. In some cases in which I have prescribed it, I have found that the bowels, which were constipated previously, became more regular, and the stools softer under its use. In some, this has gone on to absolute relaxation of the bowels, with griping and borborygmi; but in no ca^e has the debility of the patient been increased by this occurrence, and in all it ceased on the suspension of the medicine. In two instances, my pa- tients have subsequently, on the recurrence of constipation, spontaneously resumed the use of small doses of Pepsine for its relief. ])iarrha;a. Its operation, in those cases of cViarrlicea and lientery in which these arise froui a defective secretion of gastric juice, or such an atony as permits the food to pass out of the stomach before sufficient gastric juice has been poured out for its diges- tion, is one of the most remarkable of its effects. It is well known how feeble have been the powers of medical art for the cure of these cases. In Pepsine we have a remedy whose effi- cacy in such cases is unequalled. Never has the truth of the maxim, sublata causa toUitur effectus, been more happily exemplified than in the narrative of some cases of this kind, treated with Pepsine. I would refer especially to the cases by Parthez, abstracts of which are given in my work. The im- provement is at once seen in the reduction in number of the evacuations, the disappearance from them of undigested por- tions of food, and the general improvement of the embonpoint and vital powers of the patient. A few doses, as in cases of gastric disturbance, suffice to produce an amendment, and the medicine may soon be discontinued. In some instances, the state of diarrhcea is superseded by one of constipation. There is one great advantage also in this remedy in the treatment of infantile diarrhoea, and it is that the restrictions upon the diet