Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 339
kidneys or bladder, the patients diet must be cool,
and the drink of a soft, healing balsamic quality,
as decoctions of marsh mallow roots with liquorice,
solutions of gum arabic, &c. Three ounces of marsh¬
mallow roots, and half an ounce of liquorice, may be
boiled in two English quarts of water to one; two
ounces of gum arabic, and half an ounce of purified
nitre, may be dissolved in the strained liquor, and a
tea-cupful of it taken four or five times a-day.
The early use of astringents in this disease has
often bad consequences. When the flux is stopped
too soon, the grumous blood, by being confined in
the vessels, may produce inflammations, abcess, and
ulcers. If, however, the case be urgent, or the pa¬
tient seem to suffer from the loss of blood, gentle
astringents may be necessary. In this case the pa¬
tient may take three or four ounces of lime water,
with half an ounce of the tincture of Peruvian bark,
three times a-day.
OF THE DYSENTERY, OR BLOODY FLUX.
This disease prevails in the spring and autumn.
It is most common in marshy countries, where after
hot and dry summers it is apt to become epidemic.
Persons are most liable to it who are much exposed
to the night air, or who live in places where the air
is confined and unwholesome. Hence it often proves
fatal in camps, on ship-board, in jails, hospitals,
and such like places.
Cause.—The dysentery may be occasioned by any
thing that obstructs the perspiration, or renders the
humours putrid; as damp beds, wet clothes, un¬
wholesome diet, bad air, &e. but it is most frequent¬
ly communicated by infection. This ought to make
people extremely cautious in going near such persons