Water Brash
an affection of the stomach, the result of a general func tional debility of that organ, by which WATER BUG the vessels that should secrete the gastric juice throw out a clear, limpid water; hence its medical name of pyrosis. The symptoms of this disease usually commence when the stomach is empty, either in the morning or the afternoon, and begin with a sense of burning heat and constriction at the pit of the stomach, producing a sensation as if the organ was being drawn up to the spine.
To relieve this sensation, the patient folds his arms over his chest, and bends the body forward; after a time, a quantity of gas collecting in the stomach leads to an eructation, the patient bringing up from two to four ounces of clear, limpid water, sometimes, though rarely, acid, but generally insipid. Two or three eructations, with a gush of water after each, concludes the paroxysm, and for the time the patient is relieved of his suffering. Females are more subject to this disease than men, and those who live on a milk or farinaceous diet more than those who partake of a good stimulating dietary. Water brash is an affection to which those of a sedentary habit, and who eat their meals hurriedly, with out proper mastication, are liable.
WATER BUG (otherwise "WATER SCORPION" and "WATER BOATMAN"), the name given to a section of the hemip hemipterous family Notonectidæ. The hind legs are long, and adapted for swimming.
The body is prismatic in form, convex above and flat beneath, and the head is as large and as wide as the body. The antennæ are four-jointed. Notonecta is the typical genus of the family. To the allied family Nepidæ also belong species of the water bug, more especially named "water scorpion." Nepa cinerea is a familiar species. In Nepa the body terminates in a long breathing tube, and the antennæ are three-jointed. The water bug is predaceous, living chiefly on the larvæ of other insects.