Diseases of the digestive apparatus are discussed under the headings
of difficulties of deglutition, canine appetite, bolismus (boulimia),
disturbances of thirst, eructations, hiccup, nausea and anorexia,
vomiting, anathimiasis (gastric debility), anatropha and catatropha
(varieties of obstinate vomiting), pain in the stomach, abscess of the
stomach, salivation, colic, dysentery and diarrhoea, intestinal worms,
hemorrhoids, rectal tenesmus, prolapsus ani, fistula in ano, diseases
of the liver, dropsy, jaundice and diseases of the spleen.
Abscess of the stomach sometimes manifests a circumscribed tumor,
and accordingly, probably includes cancer of that organ. Approved
remedies are the Al'mirabile, the stomatichon frigidum, calidum or
laxativumvum, etc., stereotyped formulae, of which the composition is
carefully recorded.
Dysentery is a flux of the bowels with a sanguinolent discharge and
excoriation of the intestines. A variety called hepatic dysentery,
however, lacks the intestinal excoriation. Diarrhoea is a simple
flux of the bowels, without either the sanguinolent discharges or
the intestinal excoriation. Lientery is a flux of the bowels with the
discharge of undigested food, occasioned by irritability (_levitas_)
of the stomach or intestines. Colical passion and iliac passion
derive their names from the supposed origin of the pain in the colon
or ileum, a remark which furnishes occasion for the statement that
Gilbert divides the bowels into six sections, viz., the duodenum
jejunum and ileum, and the orobus, colon and longaon (rectum).
Intestinal worms are not generated in the stomach, as Gilbert says,
because of the great heat produced by the process of digestion. In the
intestines they originate chiefly from the varieties of phlegm, e.g.,
saline, sweet, acid, natural, etc. The species mentioned specifically
are lumbrici and ascarides or cucubitini, though the terms long,
round, short and broad are also employed, and probably include the
tape worm or taenia lata. The treatment of these parasites consists
generally in the use of aromatic, bitter or acid mixtures, among which
gentian, serpentaria, tithymal and cucumis agrestis are especially
commended for lumbrici, and enemata of wormwood, lupinus, scammony,
salt, aloes, etc., for ascarides.
The diseases of the liver, though not numerous, are allotted
considerable space most of which is occupied by scholastic
speculations and the usual rich supply of therapeutical suggestions.
Discrasia of the liver has several varieties, warm, cold, moist and
dry, and seems nearly equivalent to our somewhat overworked term of
"biliousness." Gilbert's favorite compounds for the relief of this
condition are the Trifera sarracenica, the Electuarium psilliticum and
above all the Dyantos Besonis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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