Observations on derangement of the digestive organs : and on their connection with local complaints / by William Law.

  • Law, William, 1785-1825?
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on derangement of the digestive organs : and on their connection with local complaints / by William Law. 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.

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    slowness of the bowels further down, these last being chiefly complained of, I would here pro- pose the question, whether, for the sake of these, patients, when made uneasy by them, should in every instance betake themselves to a course of animal food, certainly not a very natural one, or to the use of laxatives, in this state of the body, so apt to require constant repetition ? Though one should have much greater expectations of very torpid bowels, in some habits recovering their own powers from a system of ftesh diet, than from a course of laxatives, and more especially of certain kinds, as we have seen, yet, if the patient's condi- tion does not seem improved under partial relin- quishments of this regimen, even where it does succeed during its trial, one would consider the propriety of having daily, or at least very fre- quent recourse to opening medicines. Besides disease in such parts as the large intestines, or for some way above them, even though, as we have said, it did not commence here. Where too keen a digestion exists along with temporary openness of the bowels, it may, as stated, be still more unlimited. The ef- fects, which the inaction of either extremity, once any how induced, may have on the other, or on the whole canal, it were needless to discuss at greater length. As to the first part of this note, I re- mark, that I am at the same time ready to allow, that copious urinal secretion, and openness of the bowels, are by no means in- compatible.
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