The stomach in its morbid state; being a practical inquiry into the nature and treatment of diseases of that organ, and into the influence they exercise upon the origin, progress, and termination of diseases of the liver, heart, lungs, and brain / [Langston Parker].

  • Parker, Langston, 1805?-1871.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The stomach in its morbid state; being a practical inquiry into the nature and treatment of diseases of that organ, and into the influence they exercise upon the origin, progress, and termination of diseases of the liver, heart, lungs, and brain / [Langston Parker]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    most simple—such as the carbonate of soda or magnesia, with mor- phia—increased the pain and added to the distress. Leeches were now had recourse to, which were applied every other day for six days, and were succeeded by one or two blisters. Under this treatment the more urgent symptoms yielded, but the uneasiness of mind, pyrosis, and occasional vomiting, continued, which, when the stomach was able to bear medicine, were relieved materially by small doses of morphia and lime water. During the whole of this distressing affection, which continued for several weeks, the patient had the most haggard and anxious countenance. All kinds of ali- ment increased the complaint, except Hard’s farinaceous food, which was taken with tolerable comfort. This case, similar, in many of its features, to inflammation of the mucous coat of a sub-acute character, does not appear to me to have been a disease of that nature. The extreme despondency, al- most approaching to the insane state, the epigastric pulsation, the almost entire absence of tenderness on pressure, and the more than usually irritable state of the stomach (exceeding that observed in sub-acute inflammatory disease), are, in my opinion, proofs that the disease was not of this character ; at least it had other complications. The “ rolling sensation, over and over,” which this patient com- plained of, is likewise peculiar: I have seen several instances of it. The heat in the epigastrium is worthy, also, of remark. We have in this a class of symptoms certainly indicating increased local de- termination of blood, but whether accompanied by inflammatory action of the mucous coat or not is a matter difficult to determine ; I certainly am inclined to think that they are not. Dr. Abercrom- by mentions the case of a lady who had constant vomiting of food and severe pain, which at length became so bad that she was un- able to retain any thing upon her stomach, except fluids in very