A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine Page: 342 of 724
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CONSTIPATED COLIC.
The following is the letter of Dr. Bowers, referred to
by Dr. Smith:
Galveston Bay, Texas, January 30, 1849.
MY DEAR DOCTOR,-
I write you a few hurried lines in answer to your
request, regarding the diseases which prevailed on
Brazos Santiago, in the course of last summer, and only
premise it with the remark, that I write entirely from
memory, my time, during the season, having been so
occupied, that I could not take any notes, being obliged
to be not only both physician and apothecary, but in a
great measure nurse also.
I returned from my visit to this part of the country,
to the Island of Brazos Santiago, about the tenth day
of July, 1848, and found many persons sick with a
kind of colic, called by the people by the trite name of
"patent-belly-ache." The symptoms were severe pains
in the abdomen, which could be partially relieved by
pressure, obstinate constipation, bilious vomiting, acid
eructations, great restlessness, loss of appetite, and great
wakefulness-the patient being wholly deprived of sleep.
In a few of the more severe cases, the nervous system
was more or less implicated, and in every instance the
mind of the patient was despondent. The pulse was
generally of the natural standard, but sometimes it was
full, hard and tense. In three or four instances, there
was considerable fever, but most cases were without any
general vascular excitement; the tongue was thickly
covered with a slimy yellow or dark brown coat. The
most singular symptom, and the one that struck me
most, was the appearance of the eyes, which were red,
swollen, and resembling those of a drunken person.342
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Massie, J. Cam. A Treatise on the Eclectic Southern Practice of Medicine, book, 1854; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143817/m1/342/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.