Section 20 — Stool, Diarrhoea, Constipation

Stool (whether diarrhoea, dysentery or constipation).

Character of Stool : Acrid, (excoriating), with air bubbles, balls, beaded, bilious, bloody, burning the parts, as if burnt, chalky, changeable, chopped, clayey, coffee grounds, copious, crumbling, curdled, diarrrheic, difficult to expel, dry, dysenteric, fatty, fecal, fermented, fetid or foul, flaky, flat, fluid, foamy, focibly, expelled, frothy, frothy, glassy, like glue, granular, greasy, green scum, gritty, gushing out, hard, full of holes, hot, insufficient, involuntary, irregular, jelly-like, knotty, too large in size, lienteric (with undigested food), liquid, long, loose, lumpy, membranous, mixed, mucus, mushy, narrow in form, noisy (with wind), odorless, oily, painful, painless, pappy, pasty, like pea soup, periodic (at stated times other than each morning), pourring out, profuse, purulent (like matter), recedes (slips back), retained, retarded, like rice water, rough, like cooked sago, sandy, scaly, scanty (too little), like scrapings of intestines, sheep dung, shreddy, slender in size, slow, small in form, soap suds, soft, passes better when standing, passes better when leaning back, starchy, square, sticky, stringy, sudden in explosion, tar-like, tenacious, thin, thready, triangular, urging desire (cannot wait), watery, white, with worms.

Color of stool : Ash colored, black, bluish, brown, changeable, dark, green, gray, liver colored, reddish, variegated, yellow, white.

When do you have stool ?

Afternoon, when coughing, after drinking, after eating, frequent, morning, on motion, from least movement, at night, at noon, before or during urination, after washing.

What trouble before stool ?

For pain see Section 6.

For any other trouble locate and describe minutely.

Chilliness, colic, faint feeling, fainting, flatulence (gas in bowels), passing wind, heat, piles come down, languor, lazy, nausea, sweat, tenesmus (pressing down in rectum), thirst, trembling, urging to stool (more than natural), vertigo (dizziness), vomiting.

What trouble during stool ?

For pain see Section 6.

For any other trouble locate and describe minutely.

Anxiety, bleeding, breathing affected, chill chilliness, coldness, colic, disagreeable sensation, fainting, faintness, flatulence (gas in bowels), passing wind, eat, piles come down, hunger, nausea, sweat, nervousness, loss of fluid from private, sleepy, straining at stool, sweat, bad taste, tenesmus (involuntary straining), thirst, urination, vertigo (dizziness), vomiting, weakness.

What trouble after stool ? Same as during stool.

Constipation.

See Stool in this Section.

For pain anywhere describe as in Section 6.

To what extent and when are you constipated ?

Are there any troubles that come on during or that accompany the constipation ?

Describe all troubles and locate.

Do you feel better or worse -during constipation ?

How often do you have a stool ?

Have you any desire for stool ?

How does the constipation affect the mind, the disposition, the head and the breathing ?

How long have you been costive ?

Has it followed any sickness, other trouble, or physic ?

Is it habitual or temporary ?

Does it always come on before or during any particular trouble, or at any particular time ?

Is the child teething ?

Does it alternate with diarrhoea ?

Have you taken much physic or many pills ?

If so, state what kind.

Have you used Hall's treatment of injections of hot water ?

Have you indigestion ?

Much wind in the bowels ?

The piles (see Section 21) ?

Liver or spleen trouble ?

A bad taste ?

Sore mouth ?

Nausea ?

Amy skin disease (Section 32) ?

Vertigo (or dizziness) ?

Vomiting ?

What kind of appetite ?

What kind of thirst (Section 15) ?

Diarrhoea.

See Stool in this Section.

Is it painful or painless ?

For pain Section 6. Consult Section 7.

Most of the questions under Constipation (in this section) are suitable for diarrhoea.

What aggravates or ameliorates the diarrhoea ? (Section 5).

What seems to cause it ?

Acids, bathing, from cold, after drinking, during or after eating, exertion or work, riding, during sleep, after, vaccination, after washing, any kind of weather ?

Does it come on at any particular time of the year, month, day or night ?

Does it alternate with constipation ?

Is it chronic ?

Is the child teething ?

Does it weaken much ?

Do you lose flesh ?

Have you fever ?

Dysentery (bloody flux.)

Same questions as under Stool and Diarrhoea.

Describe more minutely the quantity of blood and mucus, and the character of the tenesmus (involuntary pressing down in bowels).