The vomiting and purging however ought never to be stopped too soon. As long as these discharges do not weaken the patient, they are salutary, and may be allowed to go on, or rather ought to be promoted. But when the patient is weakened by the evacuations, which may be known from the sinking of his pulse, &c. recourse must immediately be had to opiates, as recommended above; to which may be added strong wines, with spirituous cinnamon-waters, and other generous cordials. Warm negus, or strong wine-whey, will likewise be necessary to support the patient’s spirits, and promote the perspiration. His legs should be bathed in warm water, and afterwards rubbed with flannel cloths, or wrapped in warm blankets, and warm bricks applied to the soles of his feet. Flannels wrung out of warm spirituous fomentations should likewise be applied to the region of the stomach.
When the violence of the disease is over, to prevent a relapse, it will be necessary for some time to continue the use of small doses of laudanum. Ten or twelve drops may be taken in a glass of wine, at least twice a day, for eight or ten days. The patient’s food ought to be nourishing, but taken in small quantities, and he should use moderate exercise. As the stomach and intestines are generally much weakened, an infusion of the bark, or other bitters, in small wine, sharpened with the elixir of vitriol, may be drank for some time.
Though physicians are seldom called in due time in this disease, they ought not to despair of relieving the patient even in the most desperate circumstances. Of this I lately saw a very striking proof in an old man and his son, who had been both seized with it about the middle of the night.
I did not see them till next morning, when they had much more the appearance of dead than of living men. No pulse could be felt; the extremities were cold and rigid; the countenance was ghastly, and the strength almost quite exhausted. Yet from this deplorable condition they were both recovered by the use of opiates and cordial medicines.
OF A DIARRHŒA, or LOOSENESS.
A looseness, in many cases, is not to be considered as a disease, but rather as a salutary evacuation. It ought therefore never to be stopped, unless when it continues too long, or evidently weakens the patient. As this however sometimes happens, we shall point out the most common causes of a looseness, with the proper method of treatment.
When a looseness is occasioned by catching cold, or an obstructed perspiration, the patient ought to keep warm, to drink freely of weak diluting liquors, to bathe his feet and legs frequently in lukewarm water, to wear flannel next his skin, and to take every other method to restore the perspiration.
In a looseness which proceeds from excess or repletion, a vomit is the proper medicine. Vomits not only cleanse the stomach, but promote all the secretions, which renders them of great importance in carrying off a debauch. Half a drachm of ipecacuanha in powder will answer this purpose very well. A day or two after the vomit, the same quantity of rhubarb may be taken, and repeated two or three times, if the looseness continues. The patient ought to live upon light vegetable food of easy digestion, and to drink whey, thin gruel, or barley-water.
A looseness, occasioned by the obstruction of any customary evacuation, generally requires bleeding. If that does not succeed, other evacuations may be substituted in the room of those which are obstructed. At the same time, every method is to be taken to restore the usual discharges, as not only the cure of the disease, but the patient’s life, may depend on this.
A periodical looseness ought never to be stopped. It is always an effort of Nature to carry off some offending matter, which, if retained in the body, might have fatal effects. Children are very liable to this kind of looseness, especially while teething. It is however so far from being hurtful to them, that such children generally get their teeth with least trouble. If these loose stools should at any time prove sour or griping, a tea-spoonful of magnesia alba, with four or five grains of rhubarb, may be given to the child in a little panado, or any other food. This, if repeated three or four times, will generally correct the acidity, and carry off the griping stools.