Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/87

 DIARBEKIR DIARRHOEA 79 This important muscle is liable to malforma- tions, wounds, and morbid conditions ; its total absence is incompatible with any other than intra-uterine life, as aerial respiration would be impossible; its partial absence, like dilatation of its natural openings, or laceration of its fibres, is accompanied by the passage of more or less of the abdominal viscera into the chest, impeding the action of the heart, lungs, and digestive organs; in such cases, the liver, stomach, omentum, ileum, caecum, and part of the colon, have been found above the dia- phragm. This partition is also liable to pene- trating wounds, and to rupture from external violence, the latter being the most dangerous ; in either case, nature alone can remedy the evil. It is sometimes inflamed, and in the rheumatic diathesis is the seat of the most acute pain, increased by every respiratory act, and forcing the patient to breathe almost entirely by means of the abdominal muscles. Spasmodic contractions are familiarly known by the phenomenon of hiccough ; this is some- times merely a nervous aifection, and at others is a symptom of peritonitis, strangulated her- nia, and other abdominal diseases. DIARBEKIR, or Diarbekr, also called Diarbek- Amid, and Kara- Amid (anc. Amida), a town of Turkey in Asia, capital of a vilayet of the same name (Turkish Kurdistan), on a rocky eminence a short distance from the right bank of the Tigris, in lat. 37 55' 30" N., Ion. 39 52' E., 155 m. S. 8. W. of Erzerum. A fer- tile and well cultivated plain surrounds the city, which is encompassed by walls pierced by four gates, and surmounted by many towers. In the K E. portion are the ruins of the cita- del, formerly the residence of the pasha. It was once a very flourishing place, and con- tained, it is said, 400,000 inhabitants in 1750; but owing to the predatory disposition of the Kurds, who have rendered unsafe the inter- course with Bagdad and Aleppo, its prosperity has declined, and it now contains only about 35,000, chiefly Mohammedans and Armenians. It is the seat of an Armenian archbishop and three Catholic bishops (united Armenian, Chal- dean, and united Syrian). Some trade is car- ried on with Aleppo, and the manufacture of cotton and silk goods, though much dimin- ished, is still continued. The streets are nar- row and dirty, and most of the houses are of rough stone covered with a plaster of mud and straw. It contains many mosques, an Ar- menian cathedral and other Christian church- es, numerous baths, caravansaries, and bazaars, and is well supplied with water, which is in- troduced by a fine aqueduct, and distributed through the city in numerous stone fountains. The walls are built of a dark-colored basalt, quarried in the neighborhood, and many of the principal buildings are of the same ma- terial. Diarbekir, then called Amida, was en- larged and fortified by Constantine. On the invasion of Mesopotamia by the Saracens it fell into their hands. At the end of the 14th 262 VOL. vi. 6 century it was pillaged by the Mongols under Tamerlane, and in 1515 it was captured by Sultan Selim I. DIARRHCEA (Gr. dta'pptiv, to flow through), a disease characterized by frequent loose alvine discharges. In a proper system of nosology diar- rhoea would scarce find a place ; it is a symptom rather than a disease, and is produced by a num- ber of different pathological conditions. It is present in the course of typhoid fever, is a fre- quent accompaniment of phthisis, and is some- times an attendant upon albuminuria and other forms of blood poisoning ; it is caused by inflam- mation and ulceration of the bowels. Those slighter forms of the complaint only will be noticed here which are independent of consti- tutional causes, and which are produced by a temporary irritation or sub-inflammation of the intestinal mucous membrane. Diarrhoea is often caused by the use of crude and indi- gestible food, or even by food ordinarily whole- some taken in too great quantity or variety. Fruit, particularly when acid and unripe, un- cooked vegetables, as cucumbers and salads, food in a state of incipient decomposition, the flesh of immature animals, as young veal, &c., are all liable to act upon the bowels. Certain articles, as mushrooms, shellfish, the richer va- rieties of ordinary fish, as salmon, from pecu- liarity of habit disagree with particular indi- viduals and produce diarrhoea. The same is true of a total change of diet ; food perfectly wholesome to those accustomed to it, and the water used habitually in certain districts of country, often cause bowel complaints in the stranger. Emotions of the mind, particularly grief and anger, in some persons promptly occa- sion an attack of diarrhoea ; others are affected in the same way by sudden changes of temper- ature, wet feet, or exposure to cold. Where diarrhoea is caused by the ingestion of food rendered irritating by its quantity or quality, the purging itself soon removes the cause of irritation and the diarrhoea ceases ; if this should not be the case, a moderate opiate or an anodyne combined with an astringent are all that is necessary. When diarrhoea is de- pendent on exposure to cold, a bland, unirri- tating diet, the warm bath, and the use of opium or of opium and ipecacuanha in small doses, may be had recourse to ; in such cases the patient is generally benefited by wearing a flannel bandage around the abdomen. Infants at the breast sometimes suffer from bowel complaint ; here it is commonly caused by over- feeding. Ordinarily nature provides against this by the facility with which the infant vomits; the stomach frees itself from the excess of food, and no mischief is done ; but when the infant does not vomit, diarrhoea is caused, and undi- gested curd is present in large quantity in the evacuations. The obvious remedy is the pro- longation of the intervals at which the child is suckled. During dentition in infants, from the large quantity of blood sent to the digestive organs, and the rapid evolution which they are