In chronic enlargement of the tonsils, the advisability of operation should be considered if there is any commencement of deafness or obvious obstruction to nasal respiration. Adenoids are virtually always associated with chronic enlarged tonsils. Much can be done to prevent and cure them by breathing exercises, etc., but if the patient shows signs of deafness they should be removed.
PREVENTIVE TREATMENT. – Freely bathing the neck, jaws, etc. and gargling the mouth and throat every morning with cold water. After exposure to cold, especially if symptoms of Sore throat come on, the compress should be at once applied.
147. – Gastritis-Inflammation of the Stomach.
Acute Inflammation of the stomach, except as result of poisoning by some irritant, is a rare disease.
SYMPTOMS. – Burning pain increased by pressure; persistent thirst for cold drinks, with inability to retain either food or drink; constant nausea, coated tongue; and foul taste; dyspnoea; faintness; prostration, anxiety, etc.
CHRONIC GASTRITIS is indicated by dull pain and oppression soon after a meal, and sometimes vomiting of acid fluid or mucous. The tongue is coated or red at the edges, and the patient often complains of heartburn, flatulence, thirst, burning of the hands or feet, confined bowels, and high-coloured urine depositing lithates, lithic acid, or oxalate of lime. It usually accompanies affections of the liver, heart and kidneys, and is frequent in drunkards.
CAUSES. – Unsuitable diet, especially over-indulgence in tea; cold drinks, when over-heated; mechanical injuries; poisons- arsenic, vegetable acids, caustic alkalies, etc.
EPITOME OF TREATMENT.
Aconite (usually sufficient in simple Gastritis) Arsenicum (burning, agonizing distress; unquenchable thirst wiry, quick pulse); Ant.-C. (thickly-coated tongue, nausea, eructations with taste of food); Argentum-Nit., Mercurius, Bryonia, Phosphorus, or Arsenicum (chronic cases). If tea is believed to be the cause, a course of occasional doses of Thuja is most beneficial.
ACCESSORY TREATMENT. – In acute cases, small pieces of ice may be swallowed, and during the severity of the symptoms the patient should be fed by nutritious enemata. Fomentations to the stomach give much relief. During convalescence the patient must only gradually return to solid kinds of food. On recovery the stomach remains for some time feeble, and without due care is liable to atonic Dyspepsia.
In chronic Gastritis, the most important points are – attention to diet and general habits as recommended in the Section on Dyspepsia. Cold water, the substitution of chocolate or coca for tea or coffee for the morning or evening meal, and a spare wholesome diet, are valuable adjuncts to the treatment.
148. – Chronic Ulcer of the Stomach.
This disease is less common than used to be supposed, and on the other hand Duodenal Ulcer is more common. It occurs twice amongst women for once in men, duodenal ulcer more commonly in men than in women, chiefly during adult life, and is more frequent in the poor than in the rich.
SYMPTOMS. – They are often not very clear; but there is generally pain, or severe wearing or burning sensation over the middle of the back, and in the stomach; the latter felt just below the breast-bone, of a dull, sickening character, and worse soon after food. If the Ulcer is on the anterior surface of the stomach, lying on the back relieves the pain; if on the posterior surface, leaning over a chair affords relief; in duodenal ulcer pain is relieved by eating. Sometimes there are violent pulsations accompanying the pain, or Pyrosis (water-brash) or vomiting of food, with relief to the pain. The vomit may contain blood, either easily recognizable, or altered, looking like coffee grounds. The patient loses flesh; the pulse feeble; the bowels usually constipated; and, in women, the monthly period is deranged. The subjects of this disease are very likely to be anaemic.
DANGERS. – The dangers to be apprehended are – perforation when the contents of the stomach escape into the abdominal cavity, setting up Peritonitis; Haemorrhage, which occurs in about four per cent. of cases, generally soon after a full meal; and exhaustion, consequent on want of nourishment from defective digestion. When Ulcer of the stomach is suspected, the patient should always be under the care of physician. The dangers of duodenal ulcer are similar, and if either gastric or duodenal ulcer resists treatment an operation should be performed. See also Gastrodynia.
TREATMENT. – Argentum-Nit., Arsenicum, K.-Bich., Kreas., Atrop. Titan., or Hydras., are the chief remedies. For Haemorrhage see next Section.
ACCESSORY MEANS. – Ice should be repeatedly swallowed in small pieces; it allays the sickness and pain so often experienced; it also checks bleeding when it occurs. the diet should be simple and digestible; milk and soda-water, farinaceous food, arrowroot, and beef-tea. In bad case, complete rest for the stomach for some time, giving nutriment by enemata, is necessary. Tobacco smoking may be a predisposing factor in duodenal ulcer.
149. – Haematemesis – Vomiting of Blood.
SYMPTOMS. – Haematemesis is usually preceded by nausea, distress or pain of the stomach, or indigestion, a feeble pulse, pallor, sighing, and other signs of faintness. It is symptomatic of Ulcer of the stomach usually, but there is a condition known as Gastrostaxis, wherein frequent small haemorrhages occur without any breach of the mucous membrane of obvious size.
The table on p.486 will enable the reader to determine whether the discharge of blood is from the lungs or stomach.
TREATMENT. – In general as for ulcer of the stomach.
Aconitum. – Haemorrhage with flushed face, Palpitation with anguish; also for the premonitory symptoms – shiverings, quick pulse, etc.
Hamamelis. – Venous Haemorrhage, from any organ; also when the state of the vessels leads to the Haemorrhage rather than any change in the normal blood constituents. We have so often used this remedy successfully that we now employ it more frequently than any other for Haemorrhage.
FROM THE STOMACH. FROM THE LUNGS.
1.- In Haematemesis the blood 1.- In Haemoptysis the blood is is usually of dark colour. is often of a bright-red colour.
2.-The blood is vomited. 2.-The blood is generally coughed up.
3.-The blood is often mixed 3.-The blood is generally with food, and is not frothy. frothy and mixed with sputa.
4.-Is preceded by nausea and 4.-Is often preceded by pain in stomach distress. the chest and dyspnoea.
5.-Blood is generally passed 5.-Blood is not found in the with the evacuations from the stools unless some has been bowels. It appears then as swallowed after being coughed black or tarry looking material up.
and may require an expert to identify it.
Ipecacuanha. – Bright red blood, with paleness of the face; nausea; frequent short Cough; salt taste, blood-streaked expectoration. Often used after, or in alternation with Aconite
China. – Debility consequent on Haemorrhage, – feeble pulse, cold hands or feet, fainting, etc.
Arsenicum. – Difficult breathing, extreme Palpitation, anguish, burning heat, thirst, small and quick pulse, etc.
Ferrum. – Spitting or coughing up of blood, with Palpitation, faintness, etc.
Arnica. – Haemorrhage from an accident, or severe exertion.
ACCESSORY MEASURES. – Calmness and judgment should be exercised, or the discharge of blood may cause alarm to the patient and his friends, and unfit them for carrying out the measures necessary for the safety or even life of the sufferer. The patient should immediately lie down on a sofa or mattress, with the head and shoulders elevated all tight-fitting clothes should be removed or loosened, quiet maintained, and no talking, crowding, noise, or confusion permitted; at the same time the room should be kept cool and airy-at about 55 degree Fahr. Ice is a most useful agent for arresting Haematemesis, and it should be swallowed in small, oft-repeated pieces; it then comes in more immediate contact with, and tends to constrict, the bleeding vessels.
It is also important in Haemorrhage from the stomach that the organ should have perfect rest. As long as Haemorrhage continues, the patient must remain in bed, and take nothing by the mouth except sips of iced-water nourishment should be introduced by the rectum.
Should faintness occur, no alarm need be excited because it is often nature’s method of arresting the bleeding. After the Haemorrhage, the patient must still be kept cool and quiet, and the diet be light and unstimulating, while the posture of the body should be such as to favour the return of blood from the bleeding organs. Should the faintness persist, iced champagne is often an excellent restorative, and is not likely to induce vomiting. With Duodenal Ulcer a large haemorrhage may pass per rectum. The general treatment is as outlined above.
150.-Dyspepsia See Chapter on Dyspepsia in Essentials of Diet. Indigestion.
PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION. – Animal life has been compared to a fire; for just as fire requires fuel for its consumption, so life requires food for its sustenance. Like fire, too, the processes of life are attended with the production of a certain amount of heat. The body, moreover, is in a condition of perpetual change, consequent on its various functions and the wear and tear of life. This change continues even when a person lies at rest, for the heart continues to beat, respiration goes on, the blood circulates, the brain is in action, and numerous other functions uninterruptedly continue, from which there results a waste which must be repaired. Under ordinary circumstances, however, when both the mind and body are actively employed, the waste of human tissue is much more raid, and a large amount of new material is required for its reparation. A man weighing from ten to twelve stone loses, in twenty-four hours, three to four pounds of matter in the performance of the various duties of life. Now the matter thus expended is replenished by Digestion, Respiration, and Circulation. The organs of digestion receive the food and change it into forms in which it can pass into the blood and lymph stream and so be carried to all parts of the body. The material that is unnecessary passes through the bowel and is expelled as the faeces. Another result of the functional activity of the body is, that it is maintained at a certain temperature. If a thermometer be placed under the tongue, the temperature will be found to be 98 degree Fahr., which is greater than that of the atmosphere; this heightened temperature being the result of the activities of digestion, respiration and the secretory and muscular functions. The function of digestion, then, first repairs the waste of the body; and, secondly, helps to maintain it at a proper temperature.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."