The faeces of children and adults : their examination and diagnostic significance with indications for treatment / by P.J. Cammidge.

  • Cammidge, P. J. (Percy John), 1872-
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The faeces of children and adults : their examination and diagnostic significance with indications for treatment / by P.J. Cammidge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    factor is, however, the chemical change brought about in the bile pigments by the action of the abnormal intestinal flora ; for, although the feeces in sprue invariably give a marked reaction for hydro- bihrubin, no colouring matter can be detected by the naked eye in the characteristically pale stools. The reaction of the faeces is always strongly acid, owing to the increased peristalsis with con- sequent diarrhoea, that is a feature of the disease. Unlike catarrhal affections of the intestine, and especially those affecting the large bowel, the fceces in sprue do not contain an excess of inorganic ash; in fact, there is usually a sub-normal percentage, owing to the high fat content. I have not obtained a reaction for occult blood in any of the twenty-four cases that I have examined. INFANTILISM. A generahzed delay or arrest of development in children may arise from a number of causes, including disease of the heart, liver, pancreas, thymus, thyroid, etc., or from intoxication with the poisons of syphihs, rheumatic or scarlet fevers, alcohol, tobacco, lead, bacteria, etc.; but the only types in which the feeces appear to have been investigated are those dependent upon disturbance of the functions of the pancreas and certain intoxications. Pancreatic Infantilism was first described by Byrom Bramwell in 1904. The patient in whom this diagnosis was made was a youth of nineteen, whose bodily development had apparently been arrested about the age of eleven years. He was bright and inteUigent, perfectly formed, and presented none of the physical alterations suggestive of sporadic cretinism. The abdomen was swollen and tympanitic, and for nine years before he came under observation he had suffered from chronic diarrhoea. The unne was free from sugar. From a careful investigation of the unne and fjEces it was concluded that the pancreatic secretion was defective or completely absent. That this was the case was proved by the remarkable improvement that was brought about by the administration of a glycerin extract of pancreas. As a result of the treatment, the stools were reduced in number from five or six loose motions a day to two, one of which was formed ; m two years he grew five inches and increased one stone eight pounds m weight, although for the previous eight years he was said not to have grown at all; the sexual development, which before treatment was infantile, progressed in a normal manner, the patient looked much older, and his voice, which had been previously high-pitched and childish, became low-toned and rough. Thomson has described two similar cases in males, and Rentoul has reported the case ot a