The Oxford medical adviser for the home / by John D. Comrie.

  • John Comrie
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Oxford medical adviser for the home / by John D. Comrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    food be given in this way for a time, the complete rest thus afforded to the stomach is of the utmost value in allowing the ulcer to heal. The usual type oi food given in this way consists of glucose in saline solution. Of medi¬ cinal remedies, the most serviceable are large doses of bismuth, with which it may be necessary to conjoin small doses of morphine or of hydrocyanic acid for the relief of pain. CANCER OF THE STOMACH is by far the most common form of cancerous disease. It occurs for the most part in persons at or after middle life, about the age of fifty-two, and in both sexes almost equally, though at middle life it is more common in men. Hereditary tendency may sometimes be traced. The symptoms of this disease are in many instances so indefinite as to render the diagnosis for a long time uncertain. They are mostly those of dyspepsia, with more or less pain, dis¬ comfort, and vomiting, particularly after meals. The patient loses flesh and strength, and soon comes to ac¬ quire the cachectic aspect commonly associated with cancer. (See Cancer. ) The diagnosis is rendered all the more certain when, as is frequently the case, a tumor can be detected on examina¬ tion over the region of the stomach, but where no such evidence is obtained, the nature of the disease is left to be made out by the age of the patient, by absence of free hydrochloric acid from the gastric juice, by progressive loss of weight, and by X-ray examination. Cases of cancer of the stomach ad¬ vance with more or less rapidity to a fatal termination. In most instances death takes place in from six to twelve months. The treatment can often be only palliative, but much relief may be afforded by a careful attention to diet in which the patient receives only light and semi-fluid materials, by the treatment applicable to dila¬ tation of the stomach, by the use of morphine and other drugs which relieve pain. In early cases an opera- tion can sometimes be performed by which the disease is completely removed. DILATATION OF THE STOMACH may occur without giving rise to any symptoms, the person in question being simply possessed of a gastric organ of more than usual capacity. The condition may also arise in consequence of weakness of the mus¬ cular wall of the stomach as the result of any chronic wasting disease, such as consumption or general enfeeble- ment of nervous energy brought on by overwork. The dilatation also may follow upon a downward displacement of the stomach which is an inborn peculiarity of certain persons aggra¬ vated by a bad habit of posture (gas- troptosis). Such a defect gives rise to a minor degree of dilatation, the stomach being less active in its move¬ ments, and heavy meals being retained in it for many hours or even several days. More common as a cause, how¬ ever, is narrowing of the outlet from the stomach in consequence of the scar of an old ulcer, or owing to a cancer. Symptoms.—The symptoms of dila¬ tation have been mentioned under the heading of Dyspepsia. Treatment. — This is mentioned under Fermentative Dyspepsia in the article Dyspepsia. STOMACH TUBE is a soft rubber tube with rounded end, and usually about 30 inches in length, which is used for drawing off the contents of the stomach with the view of chemi¬ cally testing them, or in order to wash out the stomach when it contains some poisonous material, or when it is dilated and filled with fermenting food. STOMATITIS means inflammation of the mouth. (See Mouth, Diseases of.) STONE (see Bladder, Diseases of ; Gall-stones). STOOLS consist of the remainder of the food after it has passed through the alimentary canal and been sub-