Dyspepsia, its varieties and treatment / by W. Soltau Fenwick.

  • Fenwick, W. Soltau (William Soltau), 1821-1914.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dyspepsia, its varieties and treatment / by W. Soltau Fenwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    commonly employed for its detection and that it is usually confounded with gastroptosis, those who worship this fetish of their imagination never comprehend that gastric dilatation is not a primary condition, but is merely a consequence of some long-standing functional or organic disease of the viscus. No true clinician would dream of maintaining that dilatation of the heart was a primary disease or would be content to treat it without making some attempt to ascertain its cause; yet how few ever regard dilatation of the stomach as the result of a definite lesion or grasp the fact that gastrectasis is not a disease, but merely the consequence of one. The existence of gastric dilatation in a case of dyspepsia, although of importance from the point of view of prognosis and treatment, no more explains the nature of the indigestion than does the discovery of a dilated heart indicate the disease from which it has arisen. In the first chapter a short scheme is offered for the clinical differentiation of the various forms of dyspepsia. This was originally drawn up for the benefit of those medical men who attended the author's demonstrations upon diseases of the stomach, but since it has stood the test of time and appears to have been of some use, it is now published for the first time. Its sole value is to concentrate attention upon such clinical indications as serve to distinguish one form of the complaint from another and to emphasize the importance of discriminat- ing between disorders of function as opposed to mere symptoms. It makes no claim to exceptional accuracy, nor can it be use- fully employed unless the student possesses a good general knowledge of the diseases to which it refers. It cannot be too clearly understood that the science of gastric diagnosis is the art of taking trouble, that it is at all times diametrically opposed to guess-work, and that an accurate recognition of the nature of a complaint is the only possible basis for curative treatment. One of the most interesting varieties of dyspepsia is that which ensues from a continuous secretion of the gastric juice.