In the premonitory stage, it can be administered to good advantage in small and less frequent doses. In some instances, an additional astringent may be necessary. The deceptive and painless diarrhœa should receive prompt attention, and be regarded and treated as the incipient form of the disease. According to the best authorities, the diarrhœa commences with the first chemical change or alteration of the blood, and proceeds gradually, in most cases, for some hours, and even in some instances, though rarely, for days. It is not sufficient to check the diarrhœa merely; the cause must be removed, which is essentially of miasmatic origin. When the cholera is prevailing, and the diarrhœa is essentially choleraic, or the result of a depressing miasmatic influence, it should be treated with chloroform, aided, if required, by appropriate astringents.

In the fully developed stage, and even in the stage of collapse, perhaps no combination is better adapted to meet promptly all the necessities and wants of the system, and suspend the action of the cholera-poison, than the one named above. It is a simple, prompt and diffusive stimulant, approximating the principle indicated. This peculiar remedy is essentially required, and should be continued through all the stages of the disease till relief be obtained, varying its administration according to the urgency of the symptoms. When the stomach is too irritable to retain medicine, it should be given by the bowel. Take of the above mixture, one-half ounce, of the tincture of prickly-ash berries one-half ounce, of the tincture of opium ten drops, of warm water one ounce and a half—mix and inject. This may be repeated after every evacuation three or four times, unless relief be obtained earlier. Thus, it should be administered perseveringly by stomach and by bowel, aided by due employment of all necessary external means for furnishing warmth and giving relief. Opium, however, should be omitted after two or three injections. Its continued use to check the movement of the bowels is decidedly injurious.

The vomiting and irritability of the stomach may often be allayed by a strong decoction of spearmint and horse-peppermint (monarda punctata), equal parts, alternated with camphor water in small repeated doses every five minutes. This will often succeed when all other means fail.

The compound cajeput mixture[XVIII] is a very excellent and prompt stimulant, and may be alternated with other remedies with good effect. It is particularly useful in allaying violent cramps, and restoring warmth to the body, and may be given in doses of one tea-spoonful every ten or twenty minutes in mucilage, simple syrup, or, better still, in hot brandy-and-water sweetened.

The aromatic tincture of guaiac[XIX] will be found very useful in some cases, and may be united with chloroform according to the following:

℞.Chloroform,(sq.)ʒ ij.
Spirits Camphor,ʒ j.
Ol. Monardagts. v.
M. et adde—
Tinc. Guaiac. Arom.,℥ iv.
M.

S.—From one-half to one tea-spoonful every half hour, or, if necessary, in violent cases every twenty minutes, in a little sweetened water. This may be alternated with some other remedy to great advantage.

Chloric ether has been with some a very favorite remedy, and, in combination with other diffusive stimulants, may serve a good purpose. So, too, the spirits of turpentine, and the rectified oil of turpentine, have proved very beneficial, the former in combination, the latter administered alone. These agents, however, can be rendered more prompt and effective by combination. It is the promptness, the instantaneous or electric action like that of oxygen, ozone, and caloric that gives value to the combination, and renders it peculiarly efficacious when it possesses the other peculiar properties required.

In the early stage, sulphuric acid, in the form of elixir vitriol, has given very prompt relief, and is very highly recommended as a curative agent in the treatment of this disease. The following formula presents the mode of its exhibition:

℞.Elixir Vitriol,℥ j.
Tinc. Xanthox. Frax. Bac.℥ ij.
Ess. Lemon,ʒ j.