Lectures on the theory and practice of physic (Volume 1).

  • William Stokes
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the theory and practice of physic (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    of the intestinal tube, but also to distant parts of the system. In South America, where, from the heat of the climate, and the preva- lence of bilious affections, sick headache is a very common and dis- tressing symptom, a common mode of cure is to throw up the rectum an extraordinary enema, composed of fresh capsicum and other aro- matic stimulants. The irritation which this produces acts as a very efficacious and speedy revulsive, causing the almost immediate re- moval of the cerebral symptoms. In those cases of gastritis, where not only purgatives, but even the mildest substances, are rejected, the plain common-sense rule is to give nothing. Where cold water is borne by the stomach, it may be taken in small quantities, as often as the patient requires it. Solid ice, too, may be given with decided benefit. There is a mistake which prevails with respect to the employment of ice in gastritis, which I wish to correct. Some persons object to its use, and reason in this way :—Persons who have taken a quantity of cold water, or ice, when heated by exercise, have been frequently attacked with gastritis and fever, and consequently the use of these substances must be attended with danger in case of gastric in- flammation. This, however, is false reasoning; you need not be afraid to order your patient ice, ad libitum ; depend upon it, there is no danger in employing either ice or cold water in gastritis. There is nothing so grateful to the patient as ice. Let a quantity of it be broken into small pieces, about the size of a walnut; let your patient take one of these pieces, and, having held it in his mouth for a few moments to soften down its angles, let him swallow it whole. The effect produced by this on the inflamed surface of the stomach is exceedingly grateful, and the patient has scarcely swallowed one portion when he calls for another with avidity. It will be no harm if I should here mention to you a secret worth knowing. There are (e\v things so good for that miserable sickness of the stomach, which some of you may have felt after a night's jollification with a set of pleasant fellows, as a glass of ice ; Byron's hock and soda-water are nothing to it. After the first violent symptoms of the disease have been subdued, I believe the very best thing which can be given is cold chicken- broth.* The point which we are always to keep in view is, to re- move inflammation from the stomach, and this should regulate the use of everything taken into the stomach. I believe we might de- rive much advantage from anodyne injections in gastritis. I can- not say that I have ever employed them in such cases ; but if I were to reason from their utility in other forms of abdominal inflam- mation, I should be induced to look upon them as entitled to some consideration. There is another point to which I will briefly advert. In the treatment of acute gastritis, there is nothing more commonly used than effervescing draughts; yet I have frequently seen them produce distinct irritation of the stomach. In cases where gastric * [There are cases of gastritis in which even this simple animal food is inadmissible thus early in the disease, and before conva- lescence has set in. — B.]