A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF TREATMENT FOR THE SO-CALLED INTESTINAL INTOXICATION OF INFANTS

Abstract

Intestinal intoxication, while perhaps less frequently seen now than formerly, is still not an uncommon condition, and one greatly feared because of incomplete knowledge in regard to pathogenesis and inadequate measures of treatment. The clinical picture is well known, and is in many respects similar to that reported in inanition fever of the new-born, 1 Asiatic cholera, 2 severe burns, 3 high intestinal obstruction, 4 traumatic and histamine shock, 5 lethal war-gas poisoning, 6 certain cases of influenza 7 and induced dehydration in animals. 8 The basis for correspondence in symptoms is probably to be found in increased blood concentration, a condition common to all of these otherwise unrelated maladies. Since morbid states such as these, wholly diverse in etiology, may present a similar clinical picture, pediatricians ought to recognize the probability that intestinal intoxication, so-called, is but a symptomcomplex dependent largely on abnormal concentration of the blood, a condition