The Tongue and Disease.

Otago Witness, Issue 2370, 3 August 1899, Page 54

The Tongue and Disease.

One of the first things a physician does, when consulted by a sick person, is to ask to gee the longue. He doe 3 this to-day, perhaps, more through following the traditions of the past than because he expects to learn a great deal by such an inspection. Formerly, the means of arriving at a diagnosis wero fewer and les3 precise than they now are. and the aspect of the tongue was held to be of great importance. Now we have learned that the tongue is changed in appearance by many trivial causes, and can only be relied upon in a Kmited sense. Nevertheless, there are some valuable indications which such an inspection furnishes. The tongue is always rendered less moist than, usual by fevers or inflammations. This dryness may amount merely to a little stickiness of the surface, or there may be a total absence of moisture, the tongue being dry as parchment, cracked, and dark in colour. A furred tongue almost always indicates fchat-something is wrong with the digestion, although smokers often have a thin coating, even when they have no stomach trouble, and iin the inflammatory diseases of the stomach there is little or no fur on the tongue. A broad, flattened tongue, showing indentations at the sides from the pressure of tho teeth and a thick fur of whitish or brownish colour, points to simple indigestion and loss of tone in the stomach. It calls for a laxative, a very plarn diet for a few days, chiefly of milk and lime water or Vichy, and then, perhaps, a bitter tonic for a. week or two. When the coating i 8 yellowish there is more or less " biliousness " associated with the indigestion. In acute inflammation of the digestive organs the tongue is rather dry, red, or reddish brown, not usually heavily coated, and often cracked. In chronic inflammation it is commonly dry or s.tieky, more or less irregularly coated, brownish red in colour, and sometimes smooth and glazed as if varnished. In scarlet. fever sincl German measles we often see what is called the "strawberry" tongue. This occurs when there is a very thin white coating through which the papilla? of tho tongue project, showing as numerous red points dotted over a white ground. The movements of the tongue sre i..ffec-ted in various conditions. When the mind is obscured, as in typhoid fever, it is thrust forward and drawn back sluggishly. In persons suffering from lead poisoning, in the very weak, and in the intemperate the tongue is tremulous.