JAUNDICE

A disease characterized by a yellow colour of the eyes and skin, deep-coloured urine, and pale evacuations from the bowels; it comes on with languor^ lo of appetite, dyspeptic symptoms, vomiting, bitter taste in the mouth, and generally pain in the region of the liver. It is apparently caused either by obstruction of the duct that conveys the bile into the intestine by a gall stone: or by a morbid and viscid state of the bile, which prevents its flowing freely; or by spasm of the gall ducts, or by some accidental pre ure: the consequence is that the bile, instead of pa ing off by the bowels, is absorbed into the blood, and becomes visible upon the skin, and especially in the more delicate ve els. It is an occasional consequence of pregnancy. It sometimes affects infants soon after birth; in which case it usually goes ofl" in a few days, aided by gentle aperients. The most common cases of jaundice are probably occasioned by viscidity of bile. Aperients and small doses of blue pill, with tonics, are the most e ential remedies; and where it ensues in sedentary habits, moderate walking and horse exercise are requisite. It is often a protracted and troublesome complaint, and then indicative of structural derangement. Jaundice from gall stones is often attended by excruciating pain and vomiting, owing to the pa age of the stone. Opiates and such remedies as allay the irritability of the stomach are to be had recourse to, and the warm bath is useful. It is the beneficial influence of saline aperients and diluents in this disorder, that has given celebrity to the waters of Cheltenham and similar mineral springs. JA' [s. 631]