DIARKHŒA, OR LOOSENESS.

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stomach, but promote all the secretions, which renders themof great importance in carrying off a debauch. Half a dramof ipecacuanha in powder will answer this purpose very well.A day or two after the vomit, the same quantity of rhubarbmay be taken, and repeated two or three times, if the loose-ness continues. The patient ought to live upon light vegeta-ble food of easy digestion, and to drink whey, thin gruel, orbarley water.

A looseness occasioned by the obstruction of any customaryevacuation generally requires bleeding, if that does not suc-ceed, other evacuations may be substituted in the room ofthose which are obstructed. At the same time, every methodis to be taken to restore the usual discharges, as not only thecure of the disease, but the patient's life, may depend on this.A periodical looseness ought never to be stopped. It is al-ways an effort of nature to carry off some offending matter,which, if retained in the body, might have fatal effects. Chil-dren are very liable to this kind of looseness, especially whileteething. 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 any time prove sour or griping,a tea-spoonful of magnesia alba, with four or five grains ofrhubarb, may be given to the child in a little panado, or anyother food. This, if repeated three or four times, will gene-rally correct the acidity, and carry off the griping stools.

A diarrhœa or looseness which proceeds from violent pas-sions or affections of the mind must be treated with the great-est caution. Vomits in this case are highly improper. Norare purges safe, unless they be very mild, and given in smallquantities. Opiates, and other antispasmodic medicines, aremost proper. Ten or twelve drops of liquid laudanum maybe taken in a cup of valerian or pennyroyal tea, every eightor ten hours, till the symptoms abate. Ease, cheerfulness,and tranquillity of mind, are here of the greatest importance.When a looseness proceeds from acrid or poisonous sub-stances taken into the stomach, the patient must drink largequantities of diluting liquors, with oil or fat broths, to promotevomiting and purging. Afterwards, if there be reason to sus-pect that the bowels are inflamed, bleeding will be necessary.Small doses of laudanum may likewise be taken to removethe irritation on the bowels.

When the gout, repelled from the extremities, occasions alooseness, it ought to be promoted by gentle doses of rhubarb,

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