Normal urine is slightly acid, froths when shaken but the foam soon disappears when at rest The normal quantity is 40 to 50 ounces in 24 hours. On standing, a cloud of mucus is deposited, derived from the surface lining of the bladder and urinary passages. The specific gravity is in proportion to its concentration. […]
Startling Theories Of Self-Poisoning
The word auto-intoxication has come to mean in late popular sense a self-poisoning or infection of the body from a disease focus within the large intestine arising in putrefying material. As a matter of fact the word is wrongly used as it really applies to any secondary infection, whatever the primary source within the body. […]
Poor Appetite A Cause
A poor appetite is a common cause of constipation. It is an almost constant symptom of neurasthenia (a group of symptoms resulting from debility or exhaustion of nerve centers) so that an insufficient quantity of food is generally an important factor in the stasis which is so frequently present in this condition. The patient diets […]
Greedy Colon
Goodhart of London, consulting physician to Guy’s Hospital, first used the phrase “greedy colon.” In a lecture delivered in 19021 he made this observation: “I have no doubt in my own mind that this absorbing organ (the colon) is much more active in some than in others and that when greedy the colon, by rejecting […]
Commonest Form Of Stasis
As the intestinal contents pass downward they carry with them the flora (micro-organic plant life) from a higher level, but if the conditions are not favorable for their growth they quickly give way to more adapted types. In the lower part of the colon, due to the gradual loss of water, there is a marked […]
Spastic Constipation
Spasticity in the sense used here is spasmodic contraction of the large bowel, acute or chronic. Patients suffering from this condition are generally thin, more or less neurotic (nervous) individuals, many being definitely neurasthenic (lack of nerve balance or tone) and a few hypochondriacal (melancholic). There is always a long history of the condition which […]
Curious Causes Of Intestinal Stasis
It is not very rare, says Hurst, to find people in perfect health who defecate regularly two or three times a day, and others with more greedy colons who do not do so in two or three days, without apparently suffering ill effects. There have been many cases observed in which the bowels acted at […]
Why This Book
To understand this one must have some appreciation of the general character of the great masses of medical books that crowd the shelves of ever-growing medical libraries at home and abroad. Practically all these books are by physicians for physicians and it is almost impossible to find one written down to the comprehension of even […]