The faeces of children and adults : their examination and diagnostic significance with indications for treatment / by P.J. Cammidge.

  • Cammidge, P. J. (Percy John), 1872-
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The faeces of children and adults : their examination and diagnostic significance with indications for treatment / by P.J. Cammidge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    after the ingestion of pears, apples, plums, cabbages, and the like, which contain much cellulose and hard sclerenchymatous material. If a watery stool is allowed to stand in a tall vessel undisturbed for some time, the watery elements will occupy the upper stratum, while the solid constituents will fall as a precipitate to the bottom. Such stools are characteristic of intestinal catarrh, and, although seen whenever the stool is largely composed of water, are best observed in typhoid fever. FcEces contaminated with much urine will behave similarly. Frothy stools indicate an intense abnormal bacterial decom- position, and are most characteristically seen in sprue. In such cases the faeces often appear acholic, owing to the changes in the faecal pigments brought about by the action of the bacteria on them. The infant at the breast has soft soapy stools, of a curdy con- sistency, which are smeared more or less evenly on the diapers, and contain no definitely recognizable particles. There are, how- ever, many exceptions to this ideal infantile stool. Very often, for instance, in breast-fed infants who are receiving an abundance of nutriment and are thriving well, the stools are a good deal thinner, so that they appear more or less fluid, and are lacking in coherence. The fact that they are mixed with a certain amount of residual fat, together with some mucus, gives them an almost completely homogeneous appearance under the microscope. A stage further, the stools are no longer homogeneous, but in the midst of the darker parts are seen yellowish-white, or lighter coloured, particles of varying size, which, in order to avoid a more definite statement of their nature, may be called milk particles.These ought not to be present, and they are to some extent pathological, although they may exist for several weeks continuously without the general condition of the child appearing to suffer. When the stools of a ] breast-fed child begin to be of a firmer consistency, and especially j:when they show relatively dry brownish-coloured particles and . streaks, the condition of the child demands attention. As a rule, ! when this state of affairs exists, the evacuations are less frequent , than normal, and the total amount of faeces passed daily, as well as the total dry residue, is diminished. The infant is then suffering from a more or less pronounced degree of starvation, and it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the case to discover in what way the relative starvation is being brought about. It may be that the child is sick, or it may be that the mother's milk is too small in amount, or contains too little fat. The stools of an infant that is being fed upon cow's milk are