Domestic medicine

by William Buchan

When the disease proceeds from windy liquor, green fruit, sour herbs, or the like, the best medicine on the first appearance of the symptoms is a dram of brandy, gin, or any good spirits. The patient should likewise sit with his feet upon a warm hearth-stone, or apply warm bricks to them; and warm cloths may be applied to his stomach and bowels.

This is the only colic wherein ardent spirits, spiceries, or any thing of a hot nature, may be ventured upon. Nor indeed are they to be used here unless at the very beginning, before any symptoms of inflammation appear. We have reason to believe, that a colic occasioned by wind or flatulent food might always be cured by spirits and warm liquors, if they were taken immediately upon perceiving the first uneasiness; but when the pain has continued for a considerable time, and there is reason to fear an inflammation of the bowels is already begun, all hot things are to be avoided as poison, and the patient is to be treated in the same manner as for the inflammation of the intestines.

Several kinds of food, as honey, eggs, &c. occasion colics in some particular constitutions. I have generally found the best method of cure for these was to drink plentifully of small diluting liquors, as water-gruel, small posset, water with toasted bread soaked in it, &c.

Colics which proceed from excess and indigestion generally cure themselves by occasioning vomiting or purging. These discharges are by no means to be stopped, but promoted by drinking plentifully of warm water, or weak posset. When their violence is over, the patient may take a dose of rhubarb, or any other gentle purge, to carry off the dregs of his debauch.

Colics which are occasioned by wet feet, or catching cold, may generally be removed at the beginning, by bathing the feet and legs in warm water, and drinking such warm diluting liquors as will promote the perspiration, as weak wine-whey, or water-gruel, with a small quantity of spirits in it.

Those flatulent colics, which prevail so much among country people, might generally be prevented were they careful to change their clothes when they get wet. They ought likewise to take a dram, or to drink some warm liquor after eating any kind of green trash. We do not mean to recommend the practice of dram-drinking, but in this case ardent spirits prove a real medicine, and indeed the best that can be administered. A glass of good peppermint water will have nearly the same effect as a glass of brandy, and in some cases is rather to be preferred.

The bilious colic is attended with very acute pains about the region of the navel. The patient complains of great thirst, and is generally costive. He vomits a hot, bitter, yellow-coloured bile, which being discharged, seems to afford some relief, but is quickly followed by the same violent pain as before. As the distemper advances, the propensity to vomit sometimes increases so as to become almost continual, and the proper motion of the intestines is so far perverted, that there are all the symptoms of an impending iliac passion.

If the patient be young and strong, and the pulse full and frequent, it will be proper to bleed, after which clysters may be administered. Clear whey or gruel, sharpened with the juice of lemon, or cream of tartar, must be drank freely. Small chicken-broth, with a little manna dissolved in it, or a slight decoction of tamarinds, are likewise very proper, or any other thin, acid, opening liquor.

Besides bleeding and plentiful dilution, it will be necessary to foment the belly with cloths dipped in warm water, and if this should not succeed, the patient must be immersed up to the breast in warm water.

In the bilious colic the vomiting is often very difficult to restrain. When this happens, the patient may drink a decoction of toasted bread, or an infusion of garden-mint in boiling water. Should these not have the desired effect, the saline draught, with a few drops of laudanum in it, may be given, and repeated according to the urgency of the symptoms. A small quantity of Venice treacle may be spread in form of a cataplasm, and applied to the pit of the stomach. Clysters, with a proper quantity of Venice treacle or liquid laudanum in them, may likewise be frequently administered.