JAUNDICE.

277

sweetened with honey, or decoctions of cool opening vegeta-bles, as marsh-mallow roots, with liquorice, &c.

The patient should take as much exercise as he can bear,either on horseback or in a machine ; walking, running, andeven jumping, are likewise proper, provided he can bear themwithout pain, and there be no symptoms of inflammation.Patients have been often cured of this disease by a long jour-ney, after medicines had proved ineffectual.

Amusements are likewise of great use in the jaundice.The disease is often occasioned by a sedentary life, joined toa dull melancholy disposition ; whatever therefore tends topromote the circulation and to cheer the spirits must have agood effect, as dancing, laughing, singing, &c.

Medicine. — If the patient be young, of a full sanguinehabit, and complains of pain in the right side, about the regionof the liver, bleeding will be necessary. After this a vomitmust be administered, and if the disease prove obstinate itmay be repeated once or twice. No medicines are more be-neficial in the jaundice than vomits, especially where it is notattended with inflammation. Half a dram of ipecacuanha inpowder will be a sufficient dose for an adult. It may bewrought off with weak camomile tea or lukewarm water.

The belly must likewise be kept open by mild purgatives.Castile soap, if taken in sufficient quantities, answers thispurpose very well. It may be taken from half an ounce to anounce daily, for a considerable time. As few people haveresolution to swallow such large quantities of soap, I gene-rally give pills made of soap, aloes, and rhubarb, which answerthe same intention in^ smaller dose. They may be preparedand taken as under.*

Fomenting the parts about the region of the stomach andliver, and rubbing them with a warm hand or flesh-brush, arelikewise beneficial ; but it is still more so for the patient to sitin a vessel of warm water up to the breast. He ought to dothis frequently, and should continue in it as long as his strengthwill permit.

* Take socotrine aloes and Turkey rhubarb in powder of each twodrams, Castile soap an ounce. Beat them all together, with a littlesyrup, into a proper consistence for pills. Let them be formed intopills of an ordinary size, and five or six of them taken twice or thricea day. They must be continued for some time, and the quantity-regulated by the patient's stools, of which he ought to ha- r e at leasttwo every day.

24

i

I