Medical Diagnosis - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III DISEASES OF THE MOUTH, FAUCES, 03SOPHAGUS AND ALIMENTARY TRACT I. THE TONGUE AND MOUTH. (a) The Tongue. The tongue is an index of the wellbeing of the stomach and intestines, and the gastric functions are disturbed reflexly in all febrile disorders and in many other conditions of ill-health. Normally the tongue should be pink, clean, and moist. In chronic gastritis the tongue is pale, flabby, covered with fur, and indented by the teeth. In gastric ulcer unassociated with gastritis the tongue is clean. In chronic constipation the tongue is thickly coated and the fur is sometimes yellowish in colour. In thrush the tongue may be covered by a white mould (oidium albicans). In fevers the tongue is dry and coated. The strawberry tongue of scarlet fever has been described on p. 62. In enteric fever the tongue is moist in the early days, with a slab of white fur on each side of the mid-line and a bright red line at each lateral margin and often down the centre; in the later stages, as in any prolonged fever with toxaemia and exhaustion, the tongue is dry and cracked. In diabetes the tongue is large and beefy in appearance, In chronic alcoholism and in general paralysis of the insane the tongue is finely tremulous. In disseminated sclerosis and in chorea there is a coarse tremor on protrusion of the tongue. In the latter disorder the tongue, instead of being withdrawn in the usual manner, is suddenly snapped back into the mouth. In cretins the tongue is too big for the mouth, while in mongolian idiots it shows deep longitudinal fissures on its surface. In most cases of hemiplegia the tongue is protruded towards the side of the paralysed limbs: it may be coated on one side only. In bulbar paralysis the tongue is wasted, shrivelled, and cannot be protrud...