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COSTIVENESS.

to te avoided. Malt liquor that is fine, and of a moderatestrength, is very proper. Buttermilk, whey, and other wateryliquors, are likewise proper, and may be drank in turns, asthe patient's inclination directs.

Those who are troubled with costiveness ought if possibleto remedy it by diet, as the constant use of medicines for thatpurpose is attended with many inconveniences, and often withbad consequences.* I never knew any one get into a habitof taking medicine for keeping the belly open who could leaveit off. In time the custom becomes necessary, and generallyends in a total relaxation of the bowels, indigestion, loss ofappetite, wasting of the strength, and death.

When the belly cannot be kept open'without medicine, wewould recommend gentle doses of rhubarb to be taken twiceor thrice a week. This is not near so injurious to the stom-ach as aloes, jalap, or the other drastic purgatives so much inuse. Infusions of senna and manna may likewise be taken,or half an ounce of soluble tartar dissolved in water gruel.About the size of a nutmeg of lenitive electuary taken twiceor thrice a day generally answers the purpose very well.

* The learned Dr. .Arbuthnot advises those who are troubled withcostiveness to use animal oils, as fresh butter, cream, marrow, fatbroths, especially those made of the internal parts of animals, as theliver, heart, midriff, ice. He likewise recommends the expressed oilsof mild vegetables, as olives, almonds, pastaches, and the fruits them-selves ; all oily and mild fruits, as figs ; decoctions of mealy vege-tables — these lubricate the intestines ; some saponaceous substances,which stimulate gently, as honey, hydromel, or boiled honey andwater, unrefined sugar, &c.

The doctor observes that such lenitive substances are proper forpersons of dry atrabilanan constitutions, who are subject toastrictionof the belly and the piles, and will operate when stronger medicinalsubstances are sometimes ineffectual ; but that such lenitive diet hurtsthose whose bowels are weak and lax. He likewise observes that allwatery substances are lenitive, and that even common water, whey,sour milk, and buttermilk, have that effect ; that new milk, especiallyass's milk, stimulates still more when it sours on the stomach, andthat whey turned sour will purge strongly ; that most garden fruitsare likewise laxative, and that some of them, as grapes, will throwsuch as take them immoderately into a cholera morbus or incurablediarrhoea.