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Domestic Medicine, or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases, by Regimen and simple Medicines
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232

DIABETES, &c.

rhubarb, with cardaiiioiii-seeds, or any oilier spieeries, infused inwine, and may be taken in such quantities as to keep the body gen-tly open.

The patient must next have recourse to astringents and corrobo-rants. Half a drachm of powder made of equal parts of alum andthe inspissated juice, commonly called Terra Japónica, may betaken four times a-day, or oftener, if the stomach will bear it. Thealum must first be melted in a crucible ; afterwards they may bothbe pounded together. Along with every dose of this powder, thepatient may take a tea-cupful of the tincture of roses.*

If the patient's stomach cannot bear the alum in substance,whey may be made of it, and taken in the dose of a tea-cupfulthree or four times a-day. The alum-whey is prepared by boilingtwo English quarts of milk over a slow fire, with' three drachms ofalum, till the curd separates.

Opiates are of service in this disease, even though the patientrests well. They take off spasm and irritation, and at the sametime lessen the force of the circulation. Ten or twelve drops ofliquid laudanum may be taken in a cup of the patient's drink threeor four times a-day.

The best corroborants which we know, are the Peruvian barkand wine. A drachm of bark may be taken in a glass of red portor claret three times a-day. The medicine will be both more effi-cacious and less disagreeable, if fifteen or twenty drops of the acidelixir of vitriol be added to each dose. Such as caunot take thebark in substance, may use the decoction, mixed with an equalquantity of red wine, and sharpened as above.

There is a disease incident to labouring people in the decline oflife, called an INCONTINENCYof Urine. But this is very differ-ent from a diabetes, as the-water passes off involuntarily by drops,and does not exceed the usual quantity. This disease is rathertroublesome than dangerous. It is owing to a relaxation of thesphincter of the bladder, and is often the effect of a palsy. Some-times it proceeds from hurts, or injuries occasioned by blows,bruises, preternatural labours, &c. Sometimes it is the effect of afever. It muy likewise be occasioned by a long use of strong diu-retics, or of stimulating medicines injected into the bladder.

This disease may be mitigated by the use of astringent andcorroborating medicines, such as have been mentioned above ; butwe do not remember ever to have seen it cured.t

* See Appendix, Tincture of Roses.

t Dr. Ferriar informs us that he has cured three confirmed cases of this disease by acombination of cinchona, uva ursi, and opium, taken three times a-day, in the propor-tion of a scruple of each of the former to half a grain of the latter-, and that, from thegreat success he had met with from this medicine, he found it unnecessary to try Dr.Rallo's plan, which is said to have performed a cure under very unpromising circum-stances.

The indications to be attended to, Dr. Rollo supposes to be, to destroy the saccha-rine process going on in the stomach ; to promote a healthy assimilation ; to prevent nsupposed increased absorption by the surface ; to diminish the increased action ; andto change the imagined derangement of the kidneys. To answer these indications,Dr. Rollo enjoins a diet consisting wholly of animal food, rigid abstinence from everykind of vegetable substance from which sugar may be produced. I T o likewise enjoinshepatized ammonia, and the subcarbonate of ammonia when this cu_ ~t be obtained ;the skin to be anointed with prepared lard ; exercise to be avoided ; antimonial wint