Diseases > Domestic medicine

308 Buchan’s
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 sub¬
stituted in the room of those which are obstructed.
lAt 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 anytime prove sour o*
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.
A diarrhoea, or looseness, which proceeds from
violent passions or affections of the mind, must be
treated with the greatest caution. Vomits in this
case are highly improper. Nor are purges safe, unless
they be very mild, and given in small quantities.
Opiates, and antispasmodic medicines, are most
proper. Ten or twelve drops of liquid laudanum
may be taken in a cup of valerian or penny-royal tea