The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 69

DYSPEPSIA.

It is generally conceded that a mult.i.tude of human ailments arise from _indigestion_, and in its various forms it taxes the skill of the physician to prescribe the proper remedies. It is undeniable that the closest intimacy exists between happiness and good digestion. A healthy digestion aids materially in making a cheerful disposition, and the "feast of reason and flow of soul" is due as much to the functional integrity of the stomach as to a strong and generous mental organization. Dr. Johnson severely said: "_Every man is a rascal as soon as he is sick._" We all know that a morbid condition irritates the individual and excites sarcastic and disagreeable remarks. And, likewise, an irritable temper and, suddenly aroused pa.s.sions may not only turn and disturb the stomach, but even poison the secretions.

Anxiety, excitability, fear, and irritability frequently cause the perversion of physiological processes.

The slightest functional disturbance of the stomach deranges, more or less, all the succeeding operations of digestion and tends to the vitiation and impairment of the delicate processes of nutrition.

Dyspepsia may commence and proceed so insidiously as not to excite the suspicion of friends, although the patient generally desires active treatment, such as cathartics, emetics, and medicines to act upon the liver. When the disease becomes confirmed, it presents some of the following symptoms: Weight, uneasiness, and fullness in the region of the stomach, attended by impatience, irritability, sluggishness, anxiety, and melancholy; there is impairment of the appet.i.te and taste, also sourness, flatulency, and, perhaps, frequent attacks of colic, loss of hope, courage, and energy; apathy, drowsiness, and frightful dreams are also symptoms common in the different stages of this disease. There are, furthermore, the accompanying symptoms of a coated tongue, bitter taste in the mouth, unpleasant eructations, scalding of the throat from regurgitation, offensive breath, sick headache, giddiness, disturbed sleep, sallow countenance, heart-burn, morbid craving after food, constant anxiety and apprehension, fancied impotency, and fickleness.

The subjects of dyspepsia frequently imagine that they require medicines to act upon the liver, desire active treatment, are endlessly experimenting in diet, daily rehea.r.s.e their symptoms, and are morbidly sensitive.

CAUSES. Overtasking the body or mind, overloading the stomach, the use of improper food, such as stale vegetables and meat, unripe fruits, indigestible articles, improperly prepared food, irregular meals, disorderly habits, the use of alcoholic stimulants, loss of sleep, masturbation irritability of temper, anxiety, or grief may all give rise to indigestion. If the functions performed by the skin are embarra.s.sed by cold, tight clothing, or lack of cleanliness, the nutritive changes cannot properly take place throughout the body, and consequently the digestive functions are embarra.s.sed, as the revolutions of a water-wheel are impeded by the backset of the water. When food is not thoroughly masticated, it is not properly mixed with saliva of the glands of the mouth, and is not prepared for digestion by the acids of the stomach.

Whatever diminishes the general strength, impairs the health, or encroaches upon the functions of life, also hinders the perfect solution of food and disturbs in a measure the function of digestion. Whatever diminishes the normal amount of the digestive secretions or perverts their quality, deteriorating their solvent properties, is a cause of dyspepsia. This should be borne in mind in selecting remedies.

TREATMENT. The hygienic treatment consists in the regulation of the daily habits, proper selection and preparation of the food, cultivation of cheerfulness, diversion of the mind, and cleanliness of person. We cannot give particular directions as to the kind of diet, as there are no established rules for guidance. Generally, a dyspeptic knows best, from experience, what articles of diet can be taken with the least injury. The directions applicable to the condition of one patient, are not suited to those of another. In dyspepsia, animal food is, as a rule, preferable. Foods rich in starchy matter often ferment and produce distress. Sometimes alkalies may be given with beneficial effect, when there seems to be an excess of acid in the gastric secretions.

In some cases, the digestive fluids are weak and fermentation results, giving rise to flatulency and belching. An antiseptic, which may be prepared by mixing a teaspoonful of hydrochloric acid with four ounces of water, of which a teaspoonful may be taken after each meal, will prove beneficial to check the fermentation and aid digestion. The addition of one or two drops of a mixture of one part of carbolic acid and six of glycerine, to the above solution of hydrochloric acid improves its antiseptic properties. Or, Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery will stop undue fermentation, and from its tonic and invigorating effect upon the lining membranes of the stomach will generally overcome the indigestion. Some people are afraid to take it, when suffering from indigestion, because it has a sweet taste. But the sweet is not saccharine, or sugar sweet, but an entirely different sweet principle which prevents fermentation instead of promoting it.

Acidity of the stomach and the attendant irritation may be allayed by the following mixture: Calcined magnesia, one drachm; refined sugar, one drachm; subnitrate of bis.m.u.th, one-half drachm; oil of cajeput, ten drops. The dose is half a teaspoonful an hour after every meal. Any dispensing druggist can put it up.

It is frequently difficult to prevent the patient from over-distending the stomach, and thus impairing the tone of the muscular coats and prolonging the process of digestion.

In consequence of debility, over-exertion, anxiety, or chronic inflammation of the stomach, there is not a proper secretion, in quant.i.ty or quality, of digestive solvents, and it matters not whether it be a deficiency of the fluids of the stomach, or of the intestines, or of the pancreas and liver, the result is indigestion. The question of what important agent is lacking, naturally presents itself to the physician. Is it _pepsin_, the active principle of the gastric juice, which converts proteids into peptone, that is wanting, or is there a deficiency of _pancreatin_? Of course the principle which is lacking should be supplied; but has the physician the remedial agents properly prepared, and ready for prescribing? The specialist, having more cases of dyspepsia to treat than the general pract.i.tioner, is more likely to have the latest and most approved remedies applicable to loss of appet.i.te, indigestion, impoverished blood, imperfect a.s.similation, and all diseases arising from faulty nutrition. In ordinary practice, the physician's time is divided in his consideration of acute, chronic, surgical, and obstetrical cases; in fact, much of it is occupied in riding to reach his patients. His attention is continually diverted from one cla.s.s of cases to another, effectually preventing investigation in any particular direction. His patronage does not warrant him in the outlay of time required for the investigation of particular diseases, and the expense necessary to obtain the latest and best remedial agents for their treatment. In the multiplicity of his cares and arduous duties by night and by day, obstinate chronic cases become an annoyance to him, and whenever he can be otherwise professionally employed, he avoids them, disliking to undertake their treatment.

With plenty of time for scientific investigation, ample facilities to meet the demands upon his skill, and each succeeding case presenting some new phase, the treatment becomes a matter of absorbing interest to the specialist, and each success inspires greater confidence. We not only use in the treatment of indigestion, solvent remedies, like pepsin, which act only upon proteids, but also other remedies of recent discovery, which exert a remarkable curative influence in diseases of the digestive organs.

The chemistry of digestion and of life is becoming better understood.

Any of the free acids may serve to dissolve a precipitated phosphate; but it is only the investigating therapeutist and experienced pract.i.tioner who understands which of them is the _most_ and which is the _least_ efficacious. Alkalies may dissolve lithic deposits, but who, unless he be an experienced physician, can detect the fault of nutrition which leads to their formation, or rightly interpret the symptoms indicating it? These simple ill.u.s.trations of the complications which attend dyspepsia, are mentioned merely to show that they must be antic.i.p.ated and taken into account in the treatment.

The number of cases of dyspeptic invalids treated by the staff of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Inst.i.tute within file past few years, is so large as scarcely to be credited by those unacquainted with the prevalence of this disease. For this reason we have taken unusual pains to investigate the causes of the disease, and have spared no expense to provide the most approved digestive solvents, and stomachic tonics, which invigorate the mucous membrane of the stomach, and materially a.s.sist in reducing the food to a liquid condition. Some of these, without being purgative, increase the activity of the liver, and stimulate the intestinal secretions, two very important indications which should be fulfilled by remedies which cause no real depression.

The recent important discoveries made in obtaining the active principles from indigenous plants, has opened the way to the use of a few of the most important of these remedial agents, hitherto almost wholly unknown to the medical profession, and the encouraging results attending our practice have amply repaid us for the investigation and originality in our treatment of this affection.

A careful chemical and microscopical examination of the urine often discloses the actual morbid conditions which perpetuate this functional disease.

CHRONIC DIARRHEA.

On account of the frequency and importance of chronic diarrhea, we deem it worthy of special consideration. It is frequently the sequel of the acute form of the affection. The urgent and severe symptoms of acute diarrhea are often abated, but the disease is not completely cured. The bowels are left in an irritable condition, perhaps in a state of chronic ulceration, which perpetuates morbid discharges.

The most noticeable symptom is the tendency to frequent and unhealthy discharges from the intestines. The evacuated matter varies much in appearance and character in different cases. The precise location of the morbid conditions which give rise to the discharges, as well as to their extent, modifies the color, consistency, and ingredients of the stools.

Most frequently they are dark colored and of very offensive odor. They are of a more liquid character than is natural, except when, as is sometimes the case, periods of constipation alternate with periods of unnatural looseness. Tormina, or griping, is usually present, but not so severe as in the acute affection. Tenesmus, or straining, often accompanies it. The appet.i.te is impaired, there is general debility, and the patient is nervous and irritable. The complexion becomes sallow, the skin dry and rough, the tongue dark colored, and the body emaciated.

The affection may be the sequel of neglected or badly treated acute diarrhea, may arise from the injudicious use of powerful purgative medicines, may result from dissipation, unwholesome food, bad air, absence of light, long continued exposure to dampness and cold, overwork, and extreme mental anxiety. Sometimes it is a.s.sociated with other diseases, such as Bright's disease of the kidneys, scurvy, or some of the various forms of scrofulous disease.

The more prominent symptoms are so apparent and so characteristic that the most unskilled may be able to decide whether the patient has chronic diarrhea; but to determine in what portion of the intestinal ca.n.a.l the affection is chiefly seated, to decide upon the extent of its ravages, to ascertain what peculiar shade or type the affection has taken on, to investigate its complications and modifications, to ferret out its producing or aggravating causes, and above all, to nicely and skillfully adjust remedies to meet the depraved conditions, is by no means an easy task, even for the educated and experienced physician. It should be borne in mind that this is a dangerous malady, and one which should not be trifled with or neglected. Its tendency is to corrode and destroy the bowels, a process which if unchecked, must sooner or latter result in death. There is little tendency to spontaneous recovery, nor is a removal of the exciting cause often followed by recovery. The disease becomes so firmly seated, and the powers of life so debilitated, that nature cannot rally.

TREATMENT. A warm, salt bath, several times a week, taken at bed-time, is beneficial. Flannel should be worn next to the skin, and the sleeping-room should be warm and well ventilated.

As will be seen from testimonials hereinafter inserted, Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery has achieved great success in curing chronic diarrhea. Its use should be persisted in for a considerable time to strengthen and tone up the bowels. To relieve the discharges, take Dr.

Pierce's Compound Extract of Smart Weed, as needed from time to time.

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER.

(CHRONIC HEPAt.i.tIS.)

This is what is ordinarily termed _liver complaint, torpid liver, and bilious disorder_.

Under this head may be considered all those chronic affections known as congestion, induration, and enlargement of the liver, and which result in deficient action, functional derangement, morbid secretion of bile, and various chronic affections.

SYMPTOMS. Owing to the liability of other organs to become diseased during the progress of chronic affections of the liver, great precision in diagnosis is required to determine, by the symptoms, the organ which is _primarily_ diseased and those secondarily affected. This requires not only familiarity with the signs of a complicated disease, but also thorough anatomical knowledge of the diseased organ, of the morbid changes which occur in its structure, and their influence on its own functions, as well as on those of other organs.

The symptoms may differ according to the circ.u.mstances, temperament, s.e.x, age, or const.i.tution of the individual, and the complications of the disease. The local indications are fullness of the right side, thus denoting congestion of the liver; a dull, heavy pain, which is increased by pressure or by lying on the left side; a sense of fullness, weight, and oppression about the stomach; an aching in the right shoulder-blade; a dull, disagreeable pain in the shoulder-joint, which may extend down the arm, and which is sometimes felt in the wrist and joints of the hand Not unfrequently the complexion becomes pale and sallow, and there is puffiness under the eye, headache, a bitter taste in the mouth, tongue coated white or covered with a brown fur, and hardness of the gums; there is frequent sighing, a hacking cough, fever, restlessness, and loss of sleep; sometimes an unnatural, greasy appearance of the skin, at others, it is dry and harsh, has scaly or branny eruptions, pimples, dark blotches, and troublesome itching. The urine is frequently scanty and high-colored, but variable as to quant.i.ty and appearance; it often produces a scalding sensation when voided, and, if allowed to stand, deposits a sediment which sometimes contains alb.u.men. The pulse is very slow, particularly when the elements of the bile are not eliminated from the blood. The pulsations of the heart are easily quickened, and palpitation is excited if the subject be low and anaemic. There is depression of spirits, and a decided tendency to be discouraged and despondent. The functional powers of the stomach are impaired; there is loss of appet.i.te, or it becomes capricious; uneasiness is felt in the region of the stomach, oppression, sometimes nausea and water-brash, or there is indigestion, flatulency, and acid eructations; the bowels become irregular, usually constipated, and occasionally subject to obstinate diarrhea attended with colicky pains; the stools are of a light clay color, sometimes hard and dark, again thin and very offensive, and occasionally green or black. As the disease progresses, during the day the circulation is sluggish, the feet and hands are cold, but at night the pulse is accelerated, and a burning sensation is felt in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

The foregoing symptoms are not all present in one case, nor are any two cases alike in every respect. They vary according to the organs most implicated in the hepatic derangement. Thus, when chronic inflammation of the liver is a.s.sociated with _heart_ disease, the subject may have palpitation, excessive or defective action of the heart, attended with more or less pain and shortness of breath. If the _lungs_ be specially influenced, then, in addition to the ordinary hepatic symptoms, there may be a dry cough, asthma, hurried respiration, bronchitis, hoa.r.s.eness, and pain in the chest. If the _stomach_ be the sympathizing organ, the tongue is coated white or brown, there is nausea, loss of appet.i.te, flatulency, acidity, dyspepsia, fullness, and oppression, amounting, sometimes, to pain in the stomach after taking food; the food ferments and gives rise to eructations and various other manifestations of disorder. If the _bowels_ are morbidly influenced by this affection, there is constipation or diarrhea, griping pain, distension of the abdomen, piles, and pain just within the points of the hips, thus indicating irritation of The colon. If the _brain_ or _nervous system_ sensitively responds, there is headache, dizziness, disturbed sleep, depression of spirits, peevishness, capriciousness, lack of energy, irritability, and congestive symptoms. When the _skin_ is involved the surface is dry, harsh, and scaly, displaying dark "moth-spots,"

blotches, or numerous little sores, and the countenance has a dull, tawny look. If the _kidneys_ be disturbed by it, there may be pain and a sensation of weight in the back, while the urine may be scanty and high-colored, or abundant, pale, and limpid, frequently charged with sedimentary products of disease, and voided with difficulty. If the _womb_ be implicated in this chronic affection, the menstrual function may be deranged, and result in an excessive or a deficient monthly flow, and be followed by profuse leucorrhea.

The preceding allusion to the complications of chronic inflammation of the liver shows the necessity of clearly distinguishing between the symptoms of this disorder and those reflected by the organs which sympathetically respond. To discriminate more effectually, and place the correctness of the diagnosis beyond doubt, we make a chemical and microscopical examination of the urine, and thereby detect the morbid products which it contains, and direct our attention to the diseased organs furnishing them. These examinations together with a complete history of the case, enable us to make a correct and definite diagnosis of the disease, and the extent to which it has affected the other organs.

Before entering upon the consideration of treatment, let us briefly enumerate the functions of the liver: _First_, it removes matter, which, if allowed to remain in the blood, would become noxious and unfit it for the further support of the body. _Secondly_, by secreting bile, it furnishes to the digestive organs a fluid which a.s.sists in converting the food into chyle, stimulates the intestine to action, and then is itself transformed and absorbed with the chylous products, after which it circulates with the blood and a.s.sists in nutrition until, becoming injurious and pernicious, it is re-secreted and re-elaborated to serve again, as described.

For its growth and nourishment, the liver is furnished with blood by the hepatic artery; but for the purpose of secretion and depuration, it is abundantly supplied with venous blood by the portal system, which is made up of veins from the spleen, stomach, pancreas, and intestines.

This impure, venous blood, surcharged with biliary elements, which must be withdrawn from it, is freely poured into the minute network of this glandular organ. In a healthy condition of the liver, the carbonaceous elements of the blood are converted into sugar, and the const.i.tuents of the bile are liberated by the liver, and set apart for further duties.

When it fails to eliminate these noxious elements from the blood, it is itself thoroughly vitiated by them.

TREATMENT. Food must be rich in carbon in order that it may build up the tissues and keep the body warm, but carbonic acid, the result of the combustion, must be removed from the blood, or death will ensue. So bile is necessary to digestion, nutrition, and life; yet, if it be not separated from the blood by the secreting action of the liver, it will as surely poison the system and destroy life as carbonic acid. Although the const.i.tuents of the bile exist in the blood, they must be removed in order that the blood may be rendered more fit to support the body, while the secreted bile is destined to a.s.sist in digestion, and the mysterious process of nutrition. Therefore, we should induce a secretion of bile, and restore the normal activity of the liver. This should be done, not by administering stimulants, but by relieving it of all contingent embarra.s.sments as far as possible. Would any one think of giving to a weak, debilitated man large portions of brandy to enable him to work?

Does not every one know that, when the unnatural stimulus is removed, he fails? Apply this principle in the treatment of the liver. When harsh, unnatural stimulants and "bile-driving" medicines are administered for a time and then withheld, the liver relapses into a more torpid and debilitated condition than before treatment was begun. Is not this true of nine-tenths of all who suffer from this malady, and have recourse to this cla.s.s of remedies?

Then how can we remedially fulfill the preceding indications? We answer in the language of a distinguished author and standard medical writer, "by using a cla.s.s of agents which should never be overlooked in the treatment of long-standing liver diseases, chiefly addressed to the blood and denominated '_alteratives._'"

_Alteratives, tonics_, and _restorative catalytics_ are required not only in diseases of the liver, but in a large number of ailments in which the blood becomes charged with morbid materials. The active remedial properties of the most efficient agents of the above cla.s.ses of medicine now known, are scientifically combined in the "Golden Medical Discovery," which acts _especially_ upon the blood, and hence influences the system generally. It is also powerful in eliminating those morbid humors which are afterwards subjected to excretion through various organs.

Its action is radically different from most medicines employed in chronic diseases, for the reason, that what is usually prescribed, is something corrosive. Unless the disease be temporary, it may return with increased violence.

We have been very minute in the description of the remedial properties of the "Golden Medical Discovery," and have relied upon the reason and intelligence of our patrons, believing that they can, in a degree, understand why we deem it so applicable to the system. It does not debilitate the liver by over-stimulation, nor irritate the stomach and bowels by disturbing the delicate processes of digestion, neither does it act with severity upon the blood, but it operates so gently, insensibly, and yet with so much certainty, that it excites the surprise and admiration of the patient.

From the careful detail of its various properties, there is abundant reason for its favorable action upon all of the excretory organs, which co-operate in the removal of morbid materials from the system. If, however, the bowels are unusually sluggish or obstinately constipated, it is advisable, in conjunction with the "Golden Medical Discovery," to use the "Pleasant Pellets," which are also powerfully alterative, besides being mild and unirritating in their operation. They are the natural a.s.sistants of the "Discovery," working harmoniously together.

They should be taken in small doses, and their use perseveringly followed, until the bowels are properly regulated by the use of the "Discovery" alone.

It has been customary to resort to powerful drastic cathartics, followed by bitters prepared in dilute alcohol. The habit is unscientific, for it is well known that alcohol deranges the functions of the digestive organs and depraves the blood, besides creating a morbid appet.i.te. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the use of such bitters has led to a life of drunkenness, with all the woe and untold misery which attend it.

Medicines to be strictly remedial, should exert a tonic influence upon all the vital processes. Those organs which are contiguous to the liver, or connected by sympathy with it, should be a.s.sisted in the performance of their functions. Persons who are habitually subject to "bilious"

attacks are pleased to find that the use of the "Discovery" and "Pellets" furnishes immunity from such onsets, and prevents their usual recurrence. Thus these remedies are _preventive_ as well as _curative_.

What we have thus far recommended for the treatment of this chronic affection is within the reach of every family. Patients laboring under this disease, when complicated with other affections, require special consideration and treatment, and all such are counseled to employ only those physicians whose experience and success ent.i.tle them to confidence. Health is one of the greatest of blessings, and how to restore it when lost, is a question of vital importance.