To relieve this complaint, such medicines ought to be used as have a tendency to expel wind, and by strengthening the alimentary canal, to prevent its being produced there[[149]].
The list of medicines for expelling wind is very numerous; they often however disappoint the expectations of both the physician and his patient. The most celebrated among the class of carminatives are juniper berries; the roots of ginger and zedoary; the seeds of anise, caraway, and coriander; gum asafœtida and opium; the warm waters, tinctures, and spirits, as the aromatic water, the tincture of wood-soot, the volatile aromatic spirit, æther, &c.
Dr. Whytt says, he found no medicines more efficacious in expelling wind than æther and laudanum. He generally gave the laudanum in a mixture with peppermint-water and tincture of castor, or sweet spirits of nitre. Sometimes, in place of this, he gave opium in pills with asafœtida. He observes that the good effects of opiates are equally conspicuous, whether the flatulence be contained in the stomach or intestines; whereas those warm medicines, commonly called carminatives, do not often give immediate relief, except when the wind is in the stomach.
With regard to æther, the Doctor says, he has often seen very good effects from it in flatulent complaints, where other medicines failed. The dose is a tea-spoonful mixed with two table-spoonfuls of water[[150]]. In gouty cases he observes, that æther, a glass of French brandy, or of the aromatic water, or ginger, either taken in substance or infused in boiling water, are among the best medicines for expelling wind.
When the case of flatulent patients is such as makes it improper to give them warm medicines inwardly, the Doctor recommends external applications, which are sometimes of advantage. Equal parts of the anti-hysteric and stomach plaster may be spread upon a piece of soft leather, of such size as to cover the greater part of the belly. This should be kept on for a considerable time, provided the patient be able to bear it; if it should give great uneasiness, it may be taken off, and the following liniment used in its stead:
Take of Bates’s anodyne balsam an ounce; of the expressed oil of mace half an ounce; oil of mint two drachms. Let these ingredients be mixed together, and about a table-spoonful well rubbed on the parts at bed-time.
For strengthening the stomach and bowels, and consequently for lessening the production of flatulence, the Doctor recommends the Peruvian bark, bitters, chalybeates, and exercise. In flatulent cases, he thinks some nutmeg or ginger should be added to the tincture of the bark and bitters, and that the aromatic powder should be joined with the filings of iron.
When windy complaints are attended with costiveness, which is often the case, few things will be found to answer better than four or five of the following pills taken every night at bed-time:
Take of asafœtida two drachms; succotorine aloes, salt of iron, and powdered ginger, of each one drachm; as much of the elixir proprietatis as will be sufficient to form them into pills.
On the other hand, when the body is too open, twelve or fifteen grains of rhubarb, with half a drachm or two scruples of the Japonic confection, given every other evening, will have very good effects.