Relations of Uterine to Constitutional Disorder
Authors: F. W. Mackenzie
Journal: BMJ (1851)

attended with some form of chylopoietic disorder, eitlher as a cause, a consequence, or an accidental complication; and upon this association of morbid actions, or rather upon the reciprocal influence which the disorders of one organ exercise upon those of the other, may be said to depend much of the difficulty which attends the treatment 5-.4terine diseases.On looking to the table published in the precedir:--irt of this inquiry, it will be found, that digestive disorder was an almost invariable concomitant in the cases referred to; that in by far the larger number it had existed as an antecedent; whilst the history and results of treatment, which will hereafter be alluded to, tend to show that this antecedence was not merely casual, but that the chylopoietic disorder was generally the cause of the uterine.On these grounds, then, alone, the disorders in question demand a careful consideration, in connexion with the present inquiry, inasmuch as they nmust have important relations to the pathology of uterine discases.And if, in the first place, it be asked, what are the circuimstances in which such disorders arise?It may be replied, that they are referrible to two principal sources; the one comprehending all such causes as, applied to the surface of the gastro-intestinal mucous mem- brane, are calculated to produce irritation or disorder, such as those connected with errors and irregularities of diet, and the presence of crude, unhealthy, or undigested matters in the prima vie; the other, various constitutional causes, referrible to the blood, the nervous system generally, or particular organs or parts, or such states of mind as are calculated to act unfavourably upon the ganglia of the sympathetic, which more immediately preside over the functions of these viscera.Thus, whenever the constitutional powers are greatly depressed, or the body is enfeebled, either from disease, want, privation, mental, or any other causes, it will follow, that the stomach and digestive organs, participating in this general weakness or depression, will become mor- bidly susceptible, and thus readily disordered, either spontaneously, or through the operation of some trivial disturbing cause.But in other cases, and when no such general weakness or depres- sion exists, the digestive organs may become deranged, from various local irritations or diseases in remote parts of the body, and this in conformity with a principle which will hereafter be referred to.Thus we observe in all the affections of important organs, such as the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys, uterus, etc, that the stomach becomes sympa- thetically disordered, and such disorder the cause of various secondary diseases; but such consequences are not confined to the more import- ant organs of the body alone, for irritation wherever existing, however trivial in degree, or however apparently unimportant the part, may, under certain circumstances, also affect the stomach and digestive organs; and here, as in the former case, the affection thus secondarily produced will again react upon the constitution, as well as on particular parts, varously disturbing the former, and leading to divers local dis- eases in regard to the latter.Thus it happens that in persons who inherit a feeble constitution, or in whom it has been acquired, whose nervous system is naturally irmrtable, or has been rendered so by any causes whatsoever, who have been the subjects of severe disease, who have been addicted to irregulari- ties of diet, whose health has suffered from a residence in tropical 69