A treatise on the stomach and its trials / by J.C. Eno.

  • Eno, J. C.
Date:
[1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the stomach and its trials / by J.C. Eno. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hard work, exposure to wet and cold, especially if the individual be weak or debilitated. Indeed, the predisposing causes are those that operate in any way to deteriorate the general health: anything that renders the body less hardy and vigorous, and more liable to cold. Gout is said to be a just pain for trampling on the laws of health. The first step is to reform the manner of living. Dr. Abernethy told a gouty patient his only cure was 1 to live on sixpence a day, and earn it.’ A hard truth, but nevertheless good in its way. Gout and Rheumatism cannot be cured unless you first remove the origincd cause. There is one peculiarity in Rheumatism which, fortunately for our race, does not belong to many diseases, and that is a tendency to change its location—to wander from one part of the body to another. It will alternately ramble from one joint to another, till each in its turn has been visited. But it sometimes rambles from one of the joints to the eye, the brain, or the heart. When Rheumatism is thus transferred, it becomes one of the most formidable and obstinate of all maladies in the cata¬ logue of human ills. When it attacks the membrane covering the brain, mental derangement is not an unfrequent consequence; but the disease assumes the worst appearance when it affects the membrane lining the cavities of the heart. This is called HEART-DISEASE, and it produces violent palpitations, difficult respiration, ossification of the heart’s valves, enlargement of the heart, and finally, either general dropsy, or dropsy of the chest, which terminates the ‘ Sad eventful history.’ The above fearful consequences can be avoided if strict attention be paid to the truths here given. We could, if necessary, place before the reader a score of pages, to prove that by far the great majority of cases of heart-disease are the result of a rheumatic condition of the blood; but the sum of it all would be this: To prevent heart-disease you must prevent and cure Rheumatism, in the manner we have presented below; for a rheumatic deposit from the blood, if it attack the heart, will result in heart-disease. There are some cases of heart-disease that are not caused in this manner, but the primary cause of such is defective nutrition and mal-assimilation. To the thoughtful reader, the remedy in all cases, and the method of prevention, must be obvious. When a disease possesses such fondness for wandering—when its very nature is that of a vagrant, here to-day and in another place to¬ morrow—the greatest danger is to be apprehended from any improper application. Death has been known to result only too frequently from the sudden transition of Rheumatism from the limbs to the heart, in <spite of the most active repulsive remedies that could be employed. It