Diarrhoea

Diarrhoea (from a Greek word signifying to flow through), a condition in which the intestinal discharges are more liquid, more frequent, and in larger quantity than is natural. Diarrhoea is frequently accompanied by vomiting and by pain or colic. The most common cause is the ingestion of some irritant substance. Warm weather is particularly associated with diarrhoea of this type, and it has been supposed that a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit and upwards tends to favour the production of some diarrhoea-causing poison which may enter the system in water and the like. Diarrhoea in some people arises whenever the system is below par; again, in other patients diarrhoea is a common occurrence as the result of exposure to cold. Disease of the intestinal wall (catarrh, ulceration, tubercular and cancerous disease) is usually accompanied by diarrhoea.