On dyspepsia induced by the habitual use of soda-water and artificial seltzer-water / by Dr. Le Guillon.

Date:
[©1869?]
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Credit: On dyspepsia induced by the habitual use of soda-water and artificial seltzer-water / by Dr. Le Guillon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    One of the chief] causes to which it seems rational to attribute the frequency of dyspepsias, is simply the use, or abuse, of artificial gaseous beverages, such as soda-water or artificial seltzer-water. The grievous influence of these beverages has already been made known, in certain special cases, by the two celebrated French professors of therapeutics, Trousseau and Pmoux. « Irritable women, « say these two authorized writers », afflicted » with gastralgia, without clorosis and with constipation, find themsel- >) ves ordinarly very ill by making use of seltzer-water « (read : artificial » seltzer-water ») Its use is positively forbidden in all spasmodic affec- » tions of the stomach and intestines, especially of those which are at- » tended with flatulency. This remedy, which appears harmless in a « great number of cases, sometimes has inconveniences sufficiently •> serious (I). » If the authors of the excellent treatise on therapeutics have observed the inconveniences o{ seltzer-water or artificial seltzer-ivater, only among irritable women, it is because they have remarked its bad effects only when it has been given as medicine, a case in which these effects are much more easy to be perceived, because they are a great deal more pronounced and more severe on an organisation and organs already deranged, than on an organisation and organs not so disturbed; but it is not less certain that these effects are produced in every case. A physician who has especially occupied himself with this subject, D' TreniUe, has published in « Lagazette des Eaux » (January, February, and March 1859), a lecture in which he has generahzed the observations of MM*'. Trousseau and Pidoux;|in which he has moreover sought to explain the mode of action of artificial Seltzer luater and Soda-water We do not believe that the explanations of D'^ Trenille are right, as we hope to demonstrate farther on, but his general observations seem well grounded, and are confirmed to day by a great number of physicians and notably by all or almost all hydrologist physicians, amongst whom it will be sufficient for us to name D^ Qurand Fardel (2). We will explain; in a few words the reasons which make us agree with the opinion of these clever physicians ; and will try to explain by physiological data, which appear peremptory to us, the injurious influence of artificial Soda-water and Seltzer-water, It must be remarked ; firstly that before the year 1830, artificial (1) Trousseau and Pidoux. Treatise on Therapeutics. Vol. 11, p. 574.