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: CHAPTER III. DYSPEPSIA DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE MUSCULAR POWER OF THE STOMACH. MYASTHENIA GASTRICA. (synonyms—Atony; Motor Insufficiency.) By the term gastric myasthenia is understood a diminution of the elasticity and strength of the muscular coat of the stomach, whereby the organ is rendered unduly distensible and is prevented from emptying itself within the normal period of time. Frequency.—Myasthenia is a perversion of the digestive functions which constitutes the most frequent cause of dyspepsia in this country. According to my hospital statistics, the condition was encountered in 32 per cent. of all cases of indigestion, while in my private practice its percentage frequency was 5.2. Sex.—Women are far more liable to the complaint than men, the ratio of the two sexes in my cases being nearly 3£ to 1. The complaint occurs at all periods of life being a common cause of dyspepsia in growing children and almost a natural sequence of old age. Age.—The age at which the first symptoms of the disorder manifest themselves varies according to the sex of the patient, women being most prone to the disorder between fifteen and thirty, while men chiefly suffer from it between thirty and fifty years of age. THE AGE-INCIDENCE OF MYASTHENIA GASTRICA IN MEN AND WOMEN (ALL CASES.) Aee TotalsMales... .1 7 e163 e2ee Females . .26.424.41s-814.419100Heredity.—From the earliest time writers upon diseases of the stomach have observed that certain families exhibit a marked tendency to "weak digestion," and have expressed their conviction that atonic dyspepsia is a disorder that is transmitted from one generation to another. Careful enquiry has convinced me that in nearly 42 per cent. of all cases of primary myasthenia one or other of the parents will be found to have su...