Of Looseness, and the Bloody Flux.
A Cholic is often the forerunner of a looseness, and if the looseness is not too violent very often is salutary, and carries off many kind of disorders in the body. But if a looseness continues after twenty-four hours, it is time something should be done, in order to prevent a bloody flux.
If the flux is attended with a nausea at the stomach, and an inclination to vomit, give without delay the following draught:
No. XLIII
Take rhubarb (O) one scruple; ipecacuanha, ten grains; stomach powder (M) fifteen grains; calomel (N) three grains; mix them and make it into a draught or bolus, with sugar and water.
This probably will vomit a few times, and then occasion a few stools; but as the rhubarb has an astringency as well as cathartic quality, it will in general, after the purging has gently carried off the acrimony, act as an astringent; particularly if after the above draught, the following paragoric is taken.
No. XLIV
Take oil of peppermint (U) four drops upon a lump of sugar; liquid laudanum (T) eight drops; sweet spirits of nitre (D) twenty drops; mixt in a glass of wine.
But if the patient still continues after these medicines, with great griping, a succession of stools, together with a tenesmus, (that is a perpetual inclination to go to stool) then give the following: