Faecal retention, especially as it affects the caecum / by John Harley.

  • Harley, John, 1833-1921.
Date:
[1882?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Faecal retention, especially as it affects the caecum / by John Harley. 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.

    1/18
    Beprinted from Vol. Xlof St. Thomas's EospUal Reports. } r^CAL EETENTION, ESPECIALLY Ai AEFECTS THE C^CUM. Constipation is ofteu the forerunner of enteric fever, and so far may be regarded as a factor of that disease. I believe I may go even further and state tliat constipation is occasionally the sole cause of enteric fever. Those who regard this disease as specific will not, of course, assent to this proposition, but they are compelled to admit that simple enteritis, more or less general, may be a con- sequence of constipation, and the question is thus resolved into the identity of simple and so-called specific enteritis. I have long ago^ admitted, if not proved, the identity, and therefore must needs call attention to this point in the present com- munication. There is of course no morbid condition more frequently wit- nessed than constipation. A retention of the contents of the colon for forty-eight hours is sufficient, in some persons, to render the faeces hard and lumpy ; and there are hosts of people who think they pay proper attention to the wants of nature if they unload their bowels once in two or three days. Nor is the number of those who habitually go a week very small. While constipation is the commonest ailment that comes under our notice, how rarely do we seem to trace it to a fatal issue, Bt JOHN HAELEY, M.D. Lond. ' Enteric Fever, ' Reynolds' System of Medicine.' VOL, XI. 1