Emaciation

“ When larger quantities are ingested such is not the case and the fluid so high in nutrient qualities is utilized by the body for the building up of the depleted tissues. When the emaciation is the result of disease the diet is necessarily adjusted to meet the condition. At times it is most difficult to overcome the anemia and accompanying emaciation on account of the disease precluding the giving of the foods especially designed by nature to produce flesh. This is especially the case in the progressive emaciation in diabetes. ”

“ When present, emaciation is an early symptom; it is at the same time progressive, and is usually very intense in degree, being most marked in those cases where there is associated hepatic disease or obstruction to the passage of bile into the intestine, where the disease of the pancreas interferes mechanically with the processes of nutrition by pressing upon the pyloric extremity of the stomach or upon the duodenum, and when the organ is the seat of carcinomatous growths. ”

“ Those who are emaciated should drink an abundance of water immediately on rising and at meals. They should also take a sufficient quantity of plain wheat bran, or grapes if in season (Concord preferred) , eating skins, seeds, and pulp, in order to keep the bowels in normal condition.
In cases of extreme emaciation, loss of appetite, or fermentation, the patient should, for a time, adopt a diet of milk and eggs, alternating as follows:
The first, second, and third days, drink from two and a half to four quarts of milk, in small quantities—one glass at a time. ”

“ Treatment. White of egg, milk, mucilage, iron filings, sulphur, calcined magnesia, laxatives. Opium may be required to calm suffering, but acids must be carefully avoided.
POISONING BY ZINC. Sulphate and chloride poisonous, less potent oxide and carbonate. Symptoms: colics, emesis, congested alimentary mucosa, diarrhœa, cramps, weakness, paresis, anæmia, emaciation. Lesions: white, leathery, sloughing or ulcerated alimentary mucosa, strictures. Treatment: emesis, demulcents, tannic acid, sodium carbonate. ”

“ This food is pumped to the body cells where, as work is performed, oxidation takes place and heat is given off as a form of energy. The almost constant temperature [Pg 314] of the body is also due to the blood, which brings to the surface of the body much of the heat given off by oxidation of food in the muscles and other tissues. When the blood returns from the tissues where the food is oxidized, the plasma brings back with it to the lungs part of the carbon dioxide liberated where oxidation has taken place. Some waste products, to be spoken of later, are also found in the plasma. ”

“ The changes of the gases in the blood, together with the processes which take place in the intestines or in the liver, and which have so often been made the subject of the most thorough investigations, would be beyond the reach of our methods and we could only determine that these organisms have the power to convert comparatively large quantities of albumen into carbonic acid, water, and urea, with the absorption of oxygen—in short, the process would be similar to that of yeast fermentation. ”

“ In old age the waste is greater than the supply, and the body diminishes. It is unquestionable, that, with the exception of a certain quantity of carbon and hydrogen, which are secreted through the skin and lungs, we obtain, in the solid and fluid excrements of man and animals, all the elements of their food.
We obtain daily, in the form of urea, all the nitrogen taken in the food both of the young and the adult; and further, in the urine, the whole amount of the alkalies, soluble phosphates and sulphates, contained in all the various aliments. ”

“ For physical efficiency, the balance should be slightly alkaline. In the process of digestion minerals are oxidized into their chemical constituents of acids or alkalies. An excess of acid interferes with the normal alkalinity of the blood and secretions, prevents the normal absorption of oxygen and elimination of carbonic acid gas by the blood, hinders the work of the white blood corpuscles, irritates the nerves, lowering, therefore, the resistance and vitality, and irritates the kidneys. In the dietary, care should be taken to include alkali as Well as acid-forming foods. ”

“ The chemical processes of digestion, selection and assimilation of food are all done outside of the body, by artificial processes, and the cavity of the body is no longer filled with a series of brewing vats, soap factories, gas works and receptacles for refuse filth and foul water. For we may truly say that digestion consists of processes of fermentation of several different kinds and saponification or soap making. Little or nothing that is now taken into the body requires to be excreted and the only excretory organs are the skin and lungs, for moisture and carbonic dioxide. ”

“ When I stated that carbonic acid was formed in the venous blood in the processes of life, I meant merely to say that this blood, in consequence of certain changes, became capable of giving off carbon and oxygen in union with each other, for the moment inorganic matter enters into the composition of living organs it obeys new laws. The action of the gastric juice is chemical, and it will only dissolve dead matters, and it dissolves them when they are in tubes of metal as well as in the stomach, but it has no action upon living matter. ”

“ Owing to the causes previously mentioned, the intestinal canal usually offers special facilities for the production of gases, owing to the retention of partially digested food, in a medium highly favorable to fermentation. A moderate amount of sulphuretted hydrogen, and also carburetted hydrogen is always present in the colon, normally, to preserve moderate distention of the walls, while the gases usually found in the stomach and small intestine, are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbonic acid. ”

“ Post-Mortem Appearances.—Inflamed mucous membrane of stomach and intestines, with layers of white or whitish-yellow mucus, impregnated with the salt of lead.
Treatment.—Sulphate of sodium or magnesium, or a mixture of dilute sulphuric acid, spirits of chloroform, and peppermint-water. Milk, or milk and eggs. As a prophylactic among workers in lead, a drink containing sulphuric acid flavoured with treacle should be given. Lavatory accommodation should be provided, and scrupulous cleanliness should also be enjoined in the workshops. The dry grinding of lead salts should be prohibited. ”

“ Specimens should be hardened in osmic acid or in Müller’s fluid, and cut in celloidin, or paraffin.
Cloudy swelling.—Specimens are obtained from organs of subjects who have died in the early stage of some fever. They should be always hardened in Müller’s fluid, as the appearances alter if the tissue is kept in spirit for any length of time.
Fatty degeneration.—Prepare from patients who have died of exhausting diseases, phosphorus poisoning, &c.
Stain in osmic acid. Mount in Farrant’s medium and keep in the dark. ”

“ When aided by the means mentioned below the time of digestion can be very materially shortened. By adding some fuming sulfuric acid, or glacial phosphoric acid, the dilution caused by the formation of water in the combustion of the organic matter, can be avoided. ”

“ A rapid intestine motion, or fermentation, very soon takes place, numerous globules of gas form in the liquid and burst at the surface; when the fermentation is at its height, the quantity of gas disengaged is so great as to make the liquor appear as if boiling violently over a fire. When this gas is carefully gathered, it is found to be carbonic acid perfectly pure, and free from admixture with any other species of air or gas whatever. ”

“ The fixed salts, alkaline and earthy-alkaline, slowly release themselves from the organic matters with which they combined to form the tissues. The fats oxidize, and grow acrid; the moisture dries away. Every thing volatile vanishes, and, at the end of a certain time, nothing remains save the skeleton, but a formless mingling of mineral principles, a sort of humus, ready to manure the earth. Now, all these complex operations absolutely required the intervention of the infusoria of putrefaction. In pure air, deprived of living germs, they could not have been accomplished. ”

“ In case of prolonged forced breathing, nature prevents an extreme alkalosis by causing the alkali to leave the blood, it being stored in the tissues or excreted in the urine. Blood relatively poor in carbonic acid or relatively rich in alkali acts to depress respiration, and the slowing of respiration produces an acidosis by the resultant retention of H2CO3, this causing alkali to be recalled from the tissues. ”

“ It is certainly to be regarded as a very beautiful arrangement in the animal economy, that those substances which are not acted upon by an acid fluid should be subsequently subjected to the action of a free alkali, so that by the successive action of these solvents, together with the peculiar process of stomach digestion, the great majority of substances taken into the system are dissolved and rendered fit for absorption. ”

“ TREATMENT.—The poison should be evacuated as quickly as possible by emetics and proper diluents. The best emetics are sulphate of copper, apomorphia, and ipecacuanha, the antimonial and mercurial emetics being unsuited, since their effects are similar to those of phosphorus. Oleaginous protectives do not prevent, but really favor, the absorption of phosphorus. Decoctions of flaxseed, slippery elm, acacia, etc. are suitable demulcents and protectives. The fatty matter in food, eggs, etc. ”

“ After death this process may continue for a certain length of time and result in the formation of gas. Digestive fermentation is mostly chemical.
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Enzymes are unorganized ferments and are cast off the living body within the living body.
Metabolic Fermentation.
—Metabolic fermentation is that process by which enzymes in the tissues of the living body destroy the dead cells, and reduce them to the following gases: nitrogen (N) , carbon-dioxide (CO2) , ammonia (NH3) , uric acid, and other materials. ”

“ The subject of analysis, such as the liver, spleen, or kidneys, being cut into small pieces, and boiled in distilled water, and the filtered decoction being evaporated to dryness, the extract is to be carbonized with nitric acid as directed under the head of copper (p. 357) ; and care must be taken that the heat be not raised to redness, so as to inflame the mass. The residuum is then to be boiled with nitric acid; the solution being evaporated to dryness to expel the excess of acid, the saline matter left is to be redissolved and acted on by hydrosulphuric acid gas ”

“ Ammonia and carbamic acid are poisonous products which arise from the decomposition of albuminous material, and, by transforming them into urea, the liver saves our body from continuous intoxication. Thus we can see that in diseases of the liver the quantity of urea falls and the elimination of ammonia increases. ”

“ If the materials for analysis be soft solids, especially the stomach, intestines, liver, and the like, commence at once with the process of charring with sulphuric acid. In the case of the urine, examine both the liquid and sediment. Filter the liquid, transmit chlorine to excess, let the product rest twenty-four hours, filter, evaporate to dryness, dissolve the residue in water acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and test the solution both with copper-leaf and by agitation with ether. ”

“ Macerations and corrosions.—These operations are frequently brought into use by the naturalist: water, acids, alkalies, volatile oils, &c., serve to produce varied effects in the preparation of the different tissues. The maceration of different portions of the skeleton is produced by water. The employment of other liquids has for object, in attacking several parts which they dissolve, to expose others which it is desirable should be left bare. ”

“ Direct oxidation or combustion of the carbon and hydrogen contained in the food, or in the tissues themselves; the division of alimentary substances into respiratory, or non-azotized, and azotized,—these doctrines are familiar even to the classes in our high-schools. But this simple statement is boldly questioned. Nothing proves that oxygen combines (in the system) with hydrogen and carbon in particular, rather than with sulphur and azote. ”

“ In the living body these gases and other products are eliminated from the tissues, by the sudoriferous glands and ducts through perspiration, by the lungs with the expired air, by the intestines with the feces and by the kidneys with the urine. In the dead body the enzymes become active agents in tissue gas production, unless they are kept in restraint by being brought in contact with germicidal embalming fluids. ”

“ Temporarily hard water is formed by water, which contains carbonic acid, dissolving a portion of calcium carbonate or carbonate of lime. Upon boiling, the carbonic acid is driven from the water and the carbonate, being insoluble in carbon dioxide free water, is deposited. This is the cause of boiler scale, and to check this a small amount of sal ammoniac may be added to the water, which converts the carbonate into soluble calcium chloride and volatile ammonium carbonate. Permanent hardness is caused by calcium sulphate which is soluble in 400 parts of water and cannot be removed by boiling. ”

“ They offer, for instance, easy methods of impregnating liquids with carbonic acid and other gases, without mechanical pressure. They afford means of producing great diminutions of temperature, by the rapidity with which large quantities of liquids may be rendered aëriform; and as compression occasions similar effects to cold, in preventing the formation of elastic substances, there is great reason to believe that it may be successfully employed for the preservation of animal and vegetable substances for the purposes of food. ”