The vomiting which is so common a symptom in many cases greatly increases the prostration, and should be immediately relieved if possible. The following formulæ will be found useful for it:
| Rx. | Bismuth. subnitrat. | drachm ij; |
| Spts. ammon. aromat. | fluidrachm ss-fluidrachm j; | |
| Syrupi, | ||
| Aquæ, aa | fluidounce j. Misce. |
Shake bottle. Dose, one teaspoonful half-hourly or hourly if required, made cold by a piece of ice.
| Rx. | Acid. carbolic. | gtt. ij; |
| Liquor. calcis, | fluidounce ij. Misce. |
Dose, one teaspoonful, with a teaspoonful of milk (breast-milk if the baby nurse), to be repeated according to the nausea.
Lime-water with an equal quantity of milk often relieves the nausea when it is due to acids in the stomach, but it is rendered more effectual in certain cases by the addition of carbolic acid, which tends to check any fermentative process. Perhaps also some of the recent antiseptic medicines introduced into our Pharmacopoeia, as the benzoate of sodium, may be found useful for the vomiting. A minute dose of tincture of ipecacuanha, as one-eighth of a drop in a teaspoonful of ice-water, frequently repeated, has also been employed with alleged benefit.
Of these various antiemetics, my preference is for the bismuth in large doses, with the aromatic spirits of ammonia, properly diluted, that the ammonia do not irritate the stomach. Nevertheless, in certain patients the nausea is very obstinate, and all these remedies fail. In such cases absolute quiet of the infant on its back, the administration of but little nutriment at a time, mustard over the epigastrium, and the use of an occasional small piece of ice or the use of carbonic acid water with ice in it, may relieve this symptom.
In protracted cases, when the vital powers begin to fail, as indicated by pallor, more or less emaciation, and loss of strength, the following is the best tonic mixture with which I am acquainted. It aids in restraining the diarrhoea, while it increases the appetite and strength. It should not be prescribed until the inflammation has assumed a subacute or chronic character:
| Rx. | Tinct. calumbæ, | fluidrachm iij; |
| Liq. ferri nitratis, | minim xxvij; | |
| Syrupi, | fluidounce iij. Misce. |
Dose, one teaspoonful every three or four hours to an infant of one year.