Buffalo Medical Journal - 1882 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The Tongue. By J. Milner Fotheigill. M. D. Much may be learned from accurate observation of the tongue; how much, a few old practitioners almost alone can ... more »tell. In the treatment phthisis, inspection, minute and scrutinizing, of the tongue is far more important than the wielding of the stethoscope, however skillfully. The one tells much of the amount and nature of the disease, the latter gives information, often priceless, as to the precise line of treatment to be adopted ; for the tongue is the index of the state of the intestinal canal, and if the primce -vice are disordered, they must be put right before any other therapeutic measure can be safely adopted. Tell the patient to put out his tongue fully, so that the cir- cumvellate papillae can be clearly seen; it is no use to study the tip. If the patient is an infant, Sir William Jenner's plan of placing a drop of fluid, especially if viscid as syrup, upon the chin, is well worth following. A tickling sensation is produced, and the little patient tries to remove the cause of irritation with its tongue. The condition of the tongue can thus be studied without much disturbance to the child. The manner of protrusion is instructive. In the typhoid condition of fevers, and in some cerebral affections, the request to put out the tongue has to be repeated, and loudly, before the patient does as is requested; and similar reiteration is requisite to induce its withdrawal. " It is a curious fact that patients will frequently protrude the tongue when they cannot be made to do aught else, owing to the state of their mental faculties" (Flint). Then tremulousness of the tongue indicates alcoholism; and less frequently lead or mercurial poisoning. Tremulousness of the tongue may denote muscular weakness. When seen in the early stages of...« less