Diseases of the intestines, their special pathology, diagnosis, and treatment : with sections on anatomy and physiology, microscopic and chemic examination of the intestinal contents, secretions, feces and urine intestinal bacteria and parasites; surgery of the intestines; dietetics, diseases of the rectum, etc / by John C. Hemmeter.

  • Hemmeter, John C. (John Conrad), 1863-1931
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diseases of the intestines, their special pathology, diagnosis, and treatment : with sections on anatomy and physiology, microscopic and chemic examination of the intestinal contents, secretions, feces and urine intestinal bacteria and parasites; surgery of the intestines; dietetics, diseases of the rectum, etc / by John C. Hemmeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    243/688 (page 239)
    size, they pass the intestinal tract without accident. In fact, the large majority of foreign bodies are expelled from the digestive canal in this way. Diagnosis.—The diagnosis can be made by the anamnesis, and also by the presence of the foreign body in the stool or in the gas- tric wash-water. They can not be palpated in the intestine even if they are large enough to cause obturation ; but if they are of a metallic nature, they .sometimes can be recognized by the skiagraph and the Rontgen rays. Treatment.—Many times the patients will present themselves with a history of active purgation for the purpose of removing the foreign body, a practice by no means to be encouraged. When a foreign body has been swallowed, the best thing to do is to avoid purgatives, and to encourage the patient to eat a great deal of food in gruel form—for instance, mashed potatoes, puree of peas and beans, etc. But if symptoms of obturation occur, one should not wait too long with the operation. The repeated finding of foreign bodies in the stools, provided they are not fruit seeds or substances derived from the diet, should excite the suspicion of a psychosis, and such patients should be watched. Articles that have been stolen—for instance, watches and chains and jewelry—have been hidden in the rectum for a long time without causing any distress to the criminal. But in Gould and Pyle’s remarkable work numerous instances are cited of the introduction of foreign bodies provided with bristles and hooks, such things as were introduced with malign intentions upon other individuals, and gave rise to severe proctitis and periproctitis. Strange to say, very sharp objects, such as bones of poultry, have passed the entire intestine and did not become arrested until the rectum was reached, where they caused considerable distress, either by directly producing ulceration, or by setting up a reflex spasm of this organ. Such accidents occur in persons who bolt their food, and in old toothless persons, in whom proper mastication is difficult. In hysterical persons, and especially the insane, swallowed foreign bodies often exist only in the imagination of the patient. Boas (/. c., p. 436) reports having freed a hysterical patient from a swallowed needle by showing her a needle surreptitiously thrown in the wash-water of a rectal enema.