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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    three organic complaints appear, therefore, to be etiologically linked together by a secondary perversion of the gastric secre- tion which is common to each. The occasional failure of gastro-jejunostomy to remove the symptoms of a duodenal ulcer is often attributable to concomitant disease of the gall- bladder or appendix which had been overlooked at the operation. The exact significance of simple hyperchlorhydria is at present difficult to define, since, although a temporary increase in the acidity of the gastric juice is of frequent occurrence, it is extremely doubtful whether persistent hyperacidity ever exists independently of hypersecretion. In the chapter which deals with gastric myasthenia, special attention is directed to the latent period of the complaint and to the comparative rarity of true gastrectasis. The subject of inflammation of the stomach as a cause of dyspepsia has been condensed to the smallest possible compass, and only those varieties are described which are endowed with practical interest. If it were always borne in mind that chronic inflam- mation of the stomach is invariably due either to toxic poisoning or to serious disease of some other vital organ of the body, the term chronic gastritis would no longer be applied indis- criminately to every form of dyspepsia, nor would its existence be regarded as a matter of so little consequence. Displacements of the stomach constitute a subject of great clinical interest, to which either too much or too little importance is usually attached. The fact that gastroptosis exists in many persons who never suffer from dyspepsia appears to indicate that the abnormal position of the stomach is quite compatible with perfect digestion; while the existence of impaired motility or of some secretory disorder in every case which exhibits symptoms of indigestion serves once more to emphasise the necessity of distinguishing between primary diseases and their consequences. Gastroptosis is so exceptionally frequent in the subjects of migraine, that future investigations will prob-