When the physician is called to a patient with a history of vomiting, the vomited material has usually been thrown away, its character being unnoted. The patient cannot always vomit in the physician's presence, and if she does it may not be characteristic. These facts were recently impressed on me when called by Dr. Charles F. Hunt to see a patient. The case illustrates forcibly the value of the stomach-tube in making a diagnosis of acute intestinal obstruction.
History.
—A married woman, aged 45, had been in perfect health, except that twelve years previously she had an abdominal operation for some pelvic inflammation, for which it was necessary to use drainage-tubes for several weeks, thereby causing many adhesions, which, no doubt were the cause of the present trouble. She had been in Philadelphia on a visit, had eaten a good German dinner, which she fully enjoyed, and returned Sunday evening