This disease may be started by septic infection. it may be caused by an injury--a blow on the abdomen. As toxins are the principal cause, inebriety, and the use of other stimulants, such as coffee, tea, tobacco, etc., must be considered as so many causes.

Symptoms

This disease is said to begin very suddenly, with violent pains, on the order of colic, in the upper part of the abdomen. Nausea and vomiting follow. One of the pronounced cases that I have ever met with came into my hands after it had been developing for two weeks. The patient was a man forty-seven years of age. He was vomiting continually. The principal material ejected from the stomach was bile. Food could not be retained on the stomach at all. There was nothing that gave relief. At last I recommended an operation, which was performed, revealing the true cause of the trouble--namely, acute inflammation of the pancreas, with hemorrhagic spots throughout the entire organ. There was nothing to be done, and the patient died within a few hours after the surgical exploration.

Acute pancreatitis may end in suppuration--an abscess. The symptoms will be on the order of dyspepsia. Severe pains, with vomiting, will be the principal symptom. Then palpation, or bimanual examination, must do the rest. It requires surgical skill in differential diagnosis, as a tumor, swelling, or mass will be felt in the region of the pancreas.

Treatment

The treatment for inflammation of this organ must be directed to correcting the digestion and assimilation. So long as there is pain and discomfort, the patient should be fasted. After that the eating should be fruit juice, and nothing else until all the symptoms have subsided; then a very light diet for a week or two. The diet should be fruit, raw vegetables, and cooked, nonstarchy vegetables, avoiding fats, starches, and sugars. In abscess of the pancreas there is no relief except by surgical operation.

Tumors of the pancreas belong to surgical practice, the same as calculi of this organ. The treatment is strictly surgical. I will say, however, that those who are living a normal life will not develop such diseases,