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OF CHILD BIRTH.
then a cup of wine-whey: warm applications to the extremities, as heatedbricks, bottles or bladders rilled with warm water, and such like, mayalso be used with advantage.
Emollient clysters of milk and water, or of chicken water, ought tobe frequently administered through the course of the disease. Theseprove beneficial by promoting a discharge from the intestines, and alsoby acting as a kindly fomentation to the womb and parts adjacent.Great care however is requisite in giving them, on account of thetenderness of the parts in the pelvis at this time.
To evacuate the offending bile from the stomach, a vomit is generallygiven. But as this is apt to increase the irritability of the stomach, al-ready too great, it will be safer to omit it, and to give in its stead agentle laxative, as a decoction of tamarinds with senna, which will bothtend to cool the body, and to procure a free discharge of the bile.Neither vomits nor purges, however, should be administered to womenin child-bed without the utmost caution; yet as after labour tliTe is aparticular increase of heat and disposition to fever, a costive state of thebody may prove, without seasonable relief, fatal in the issue. Were thisdangerous habit guarded against by proper attention before and afterdelivery, child-bed indispositions would be less frequent than they are.
The saline draught, so effectual against vomiting, so efficacious if.obviating fever, and correcting any putrescent tendency, may be givenevery three or four hours. To a scruple of prepared kai.i, or saltof tartar, previously dissolved in two table-spoonfuls of spring wateradd a table-spoonful of fresh lemon juice: as soon as the frothing orebullition begins, it is to be immediately drank. To render it aperient,two drachms of the tincture of rhubarb may be added to each draught,but should the saline mixture run oft' by stool, omit the tincture ofrhubarb; and, especially if the patient is restless, a few drops of tinc-ture of opium, or some syrup of white poppies may occasionally beadded. After proper evacuations, and an abatement of febrile heat, thesaline mixture may be ommitted, and the following astringent, antisepticdraught, given to corroborate the relaxed viscera: Take two grains ofalum, half an ounce of fresh orange juice, two drachms of the com-pound tincture of cinchona (commonly called Huxham's tinc-ture of bark), and two ounces and a half of spring water; mix, and ex-hibit it every six hours.
If the st* ■ Is should prove so frequent as to weaken and exhaust thepatient, a starch clyster may be administered as occasion shall require;and the drink may be a decoction of hartshorn, or rice-water, in everyEnglish pint of which half an ounce of gum-arabic has been dissolved.Should these fail, recourse must be had to a bolus composed of half adrachm of powdered Columbo root, with a grain of opium, which maybe given every three or four hours, and occasionally the chalk mixtureseven ounces, tincture of catechu six drachms, opiate confection twodrachms : mix, and give a table-spoonful or two after every loose stool.Where there is much purging, an emollient clyster may be thrown upwith advantage once or twice in twenty-four hours; and if with thediarrhoea should be much tenesmus, lavements, with thirty or forty drops>f the tincture of opium, will be necessary, but not otherwise.
Though in general the food ought to be light, and the drink diluting,