If a stool cannot be procured by any of the above means, it will be necessary to immerse the patient in warm water up to the breast. I have often seen this succeed when other means had been tried in vain. The patient must continue in the water as long as he can easily bear it without fainting, and if one immersion has not the desired effect, it may be repeated as soon as the patient’s strength and spirits are recruited. It is more safe for him to go frequently into the bath, than to continue too long at a time; and it is often necessary to repeat it several times before it has the desired effect.
It has sometimes happened, after all other means of procuring a stool had been tried to no purpose, that this was brought about by immersing the patient’s lower extremities in cold water, or making him walk upon a wet pavement, and dashing his legs and thighs with the cold water. This method, when others fail, at least merits a trial. It is indeed attended with some danger; but a doubtful remedy is better than none.
In desperate cases it is common to give quicksilver. This may be given to the quantity of several ounces, or even a pound, but should not exceed that[[116]]. When there is reason to suspect a mortification of the guts, this medicine ought not to be tried. In that case it cannot cure the patient, and will only hasten his death. But when the obstruction is occasioned by any cause that can be removed by force, quicksilver is not only a proper medicine, but the best that can be administered, as it is the fittest body we know for making its way through the intestinal canal.
If the disease proceed from a rupture, the patient must be laid with his head very low, and the intestines returned by gentle pressure with the hand. If this, with fomentations and clysters, should not succeed, recourse must be had to a surgical operation, which may give the patient relief.
Such as would avoid this excruciating and dangerous disease, must take care never to be too long without a stool. Some who have died of it have had several pounds of hard dry fæces taken out of their guts. They should likewise beware of eating too freely of sour or unripe fruits, or drinking stale windy liquors, &c. I have known it brought on by living too much on baked fruits, which are seldom good. It likewise proceeds frequently from cold caught by wet clothes, &c. but especially from wet feet.
OF THE COLIC.
The colic has a great resemblance to the two preceding diseases, both in its symptoms and method of cure. It is generally attended with costiveness and acute pain of the bowels; and requires diluting diet, evacuations, fomentations, &c.
Colics are variously denominated according to their causes, as the flatulent, the bilious, the hysteric, the nervous, &c. As each of these requires a particular method of treatment, we shall point out their most general symptoms, and the means to be used for their relief.
The flatulent, or wind-colic, is generally occasioned by an indiscreet use of unripe fruits, meats of hard digestion, windy vegetables, fermenting liquors, and such like. It may likewise proceed from an obstructed perspiration, or catching cold. Delicate people, whose digestive powers are weak, are most liable to this kind of colic.
The flatulent colic may either affect the stomach or intestines. It is attended with a painful stretching of the affected part. The patient feels a rumbling in his guts, and is generally relieved by a discharge of wind, either upwards or downwards. The pain is seldom confined to any particular part, as the vapour wanders from one division of the bowels to another till it finds a vent.