OCR Text |
Show What Doctors Say Concerning Hiccoughing H HICCOUGH is a sudden spasmodic in-drawing in-drawing of air to the lungs, causing an abrupt shock to the diaphragm and chest, ending with a click due to sudden closure of the glottis. Hiccoughing may occur in tho course of the development of many ailments, in diseases of the digestive organs, in connec-ton connec-ton w"itu abscesses of the pharynx nnd contractions of the oesophagus. A common com-mon symptom of diseases of the genitourinary genito-urinary organs, it may occur in cases oi nephritis, vesical calculi and inflammation of the bladder. Hiccough may also supervene super-vene in diseases of the respiratory organs, in cases of poisoning and in nervous ailments. ail-ments. It is stated that ia some cases of nervous hiccough the attack may last for days, weeks, or even months and years. Allied to the rare forms of nervoub hiccough there is ulso the emotional hiccough, which arises in connection with A moral shock, severe tnght and sudden emotion, the hiccough due to irritation and hysterical hiccough. The latter is a particularly noisy form, with a rough, course sound. It Is sunictinieu a sort ol yelping or barking noise, persisting for some minutes or even hours. The epidemics of hiccough which have occasionally been observed are probably due to hysterical coutajion and to tho nervous predisposition of the majorttj of the individuals who are affected by it-It it-It is to functional derangement of the nervous s.iteui owing to a slackening of the circulation that the hiccough of tho death struggle, remarkable more particularly par-ticularly in a period of abundant hemorrhage, hem-orrhage, is to be ascribed. In general It may be iaid that there is no therapeutic treatment for hiccough. Certainly there Is no lack of means for combating thu ailment, but as the latter is ordinarily dependent upon very varied affections the medical treatment of hiccough hic-cough usually forms pun of the treatment treat-ment adopted for such affections. Accordingly, Ac-cordingly, the first place must bo given to a causative treatment by modifying the morbid condition of tho digestive, respiratory and gcDito-urinary or other organs upon which the hiccough depends. lt iw on account of its action on the di- . rH gestlvc tube that washing out the stom- ' H uch is sometimes resorted to. The symptomatic treatment has most frequently been based upon empiricism, l including the use of more or less diluent tH tisaus or infusions of medicinal sub- ll stances, cupping and even blood letting. I tH When an attempt is made to bring tome- IH thing like order into this therapeutic i lH anarchy it is seen that the results oh- , jH tamed arc due either to mechanical means H and to mcdicamcntal action or to the ' IH calling into play of another physiological I H phenomenon, namely, inhibitiou. jH Mechanical treatment is very popular. IH It consists in holding the breath as long ' IH as possible or in modifying tho rhythm IH of the breathlug by sneezing, or again H in inducing vomiting. I jH But hiccough bemg essentially a ner- H vous phenomenon, it was only natural to ; H suppose that it might be cured by bring- I H ing inhibitivc actions into play. Inhibl- I tion, so thoroughly studied formerly by Dr. Brown-S6quard, is an act by virtue ! of which a symptom disappears from one j l part of the organism thanks to a nervous jH influence exerted by the irritation trans- j jH untied from any point whatever to the IH part whence the symptom disappears. jf Soothing, sedative and antispasmodic M medication relies upon similar popular J remedies, such as the ingestion of very If IH cold water, the administering of ice or j of pharmaceutical preparations. Among H the last liavc beeu recommended subcu- jf tuneous injections of morphine, the in- , H gestion of chloral or chloroform, or, better ! , H rtlll, of cocaine. Injections of pilocarpine j H have also been advised. j jH Therapeutic inhibitiou of hiccough has been effected by the application of blisters, I H by cutaneous irritation, produced by H means of irritant liquids applied to tho ' H skin, and by compression of the phrcuic H and pneumogastric nerves. It is also inhibition that explains the ijl apparently siugular cures of hiccough by iM fright, emotion, a moral shock, or more sl simply by fixing the attention on some ob- ' ject. Such cures, which aro nowadays considered as triumphs of suggestion, be- jl long to tho domain of Inhibition applied (Hl to therapeutics. In any casc if theso lH practices arc not always efficacious, they 'H nt least have tho ndvantago of not con- H demning the patient to swallow drus Iu H a vain attempt to discover the specific jH remedy for hiccough. |