tice of Mr. Halsted, when
he discovers that the digestive apparatus is not originally in fault,
but that a chronic inflammation of the stomach, or a torpor of the
liver, prevails, to _modify_ his treatment; this, at all events, is new
doctrine, to treat inflammation and torpor upon _modified_ principles.
If, however, diagnosis is so slight an affair in his hands, let him,
without delay, inform his countrymen at what college he studied, and
what were his plans of improvement.--Pathology is a difficult science,
and needs mentors to point out the best paths for its attainment.

The muscular coat of the stomach has undoubtedly its proper office to
perform, and, failing in its functions, it may, in conjunction with
other causes, lead to dyspepsia; but to fix upon this, in particular, is
to negative the effects of other organs, and to deceive both your
patient and yourself.

One of the most important discoveries in this work appears under the
title of "the state of the abdominal muscles during dyspepsia;" which is
pronounced to be a very characteristic feature of the disease, never yet
noticed by writers on the subject, or particularly attended to by
physicians. It would certainly have been somewhat strange for medical
writers to enlarge upon a symptom of one disease, which absolutely
belongs to another; or for physicians to attend to what they could not
detect; and it is equally singular, that this very characteristic
feature should only have favoured Mr. Halsted and his patients with a
visitation. Whenever the muscles of the abdomen are in a state of
constriction, as described by him, the usual cause is spasm of some part
of the intestinal canal, produced by _colic_, either of an accidental
nature, arising from some acrid ingesta, which irritate the bowels
without producing diarrhoea, attended with griping pains and
distention, and _spasmodic contraction of the abdominal muscles_, with
costiveness; or of a bilious form, closely allied to bilious diarrhoea
and cholera (Gregory.) These are the varieties of colic which have been
confounded with dyspepsia, particularly the first described; the symptom
alluded to has little or nothing to do with the office of the stomach,
but depends chiefly upon acrid substances, which have passed from that
organ, to exercise their pernicious qualities upon the intestines; the
sufferings of Mr. Halsted, so pathetically described, may at once be
referred to a fit of the colic, which a due want