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FLATULENCIES, OR WIND.

lie may drink freely of warm lemonade, or balm-tea, with someorange or lemon peel in it. It will likewise be proper, if the fainting-fits have been long and severe, to cleanse the bowels by throwing in an emollient clyster.

It is common in fainting-fits, from whatever cause they proceed,to bleed the patient. This practice may be very proper in strongpersons of a full habit ; but in those who are weak and delicate, orsubject to nervous disorders, it is dangerous. The proper methodwith such people is, to expose them to the free air, and to use cor-dial and stimulating medicines, as volatile salts, Hungary-watei ,spirits of lavender, tincture of castor, and the like.

Flatulencies, or Wind. (Fldtulentia.)

All nervous i ntients, without exception, are afflicted with windand flatulencies in the stomach and bowels, which arise chieflyfrom the want of tone or vigour in these organs. Crude flatulentaliment, as green peas, beans, coleworts, cabbages, and such likemay increase this complaint ; but strong and healthy people are sel-dom troubled with wind, unless they either overload their sto-machs, or drink liquors that are in a fermenting state, and conse-quently full of elastic air. While therefore the matter of flatulenceproceeds from our aliments, the cause which makes air separatefrom them in such quantity as to occasion complaints, is almost al-ways a fault of the bowels themselves, which are too weak eitherto prevent the production of elastic air, or to expel it after it isproduced.

To relieve this complaint, such medicines ought to be used as*have a tendency to expel wind, and by strengthening the aliment-ary canal, to prevent its being prodtrced there.*

The list of medicines for expelling wind is very numerous ; theyoften, however, disappoint the expectations of both the physicianand his patient. The most celebrated among the class of carmi-natives are juniper-berries ; the roots of ginger and zedoary ; theseeds of anise, caraway, and coriander ; gum asafœtida and opi-um ; the warm waters, tinctures, and spirits, as the aromaticwater, the tincture of woodsoot, the volatile aromatic spirit, œther,&c.

Dr. Whyte says, he found no medicine more efficacious in expel-ling wind than œther and laudanum. He generally gave the laud-anum in a mixture with peppermint-water and tincture of castor,or sweet spirits of nitre. Sometimes, in place of this, he gave opi-um in pills with asafœtida. He observes that the good effects ofopiates are equally conspicuous, whether the flatulence be contain-ed 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 œther, the Doctor says, he has often seen verygood effects from it in flatulent complaints, where other medicinesfailed. The dose is a tea-spoonful mixed with two table-spoonsful

* Many nervous people find great benefit from eating a dry biscuit, especially whenthe stomach is empty. Í look upon this as one of the best carminative medicines;and would recommend it in all complaints of the stomach, arising from flatulence,'ndigestion, &c.