the medical guide.
FLUX (Dysentery).
Causes.——State of the atmosphere, eating unripe fruits and vegetables, exposure to cold and damp, unwholesome food, &c.
Symptoms.——Pain in the bowels, accompanied with griping; pressing pain at stool, which consists principally of mucous tinged with blood.
Treatment.——At the commencement of the attack, an emetic of 15 grains ipecacuan, to 1 grain of tartar emetic, and drinking plentifully of linseed tea, following up this with 1 ounce of castor oil, with from 20 to 30 drops of laudanum, and keeping warm in bed for a day or two, will often check the disease in the bud.
Observations.——If it progress, use elysters of starch and laudanum after every inclination to stool, &c. A teaspoonful of laudanum may be added to the injection in the case of an adult, 5 to 16 drops to an infant. Dysentery is a very troublesome disease, and when once established is very intractable, leaving the subject after recovery in a weak languid state, and liable to a relapse on any impropriety on his part. Hence the necessity of attention to the first symptoms. Roll of flannel worn round the bowels is a good precautionary measure, and the utmost attention to diet, which ought to be principally animal.
GIDDINESS.
Causes.——Fullness of blood in the head, flatulence, &c.
Symptoms.——Objects appear whirling round; unsteady gait, and tendency to fall.
Treatment.——If from fulness of blood, leeches to the temples; cooling purgatives, as salts, &c.; vegetable diet. If from flatulence, a teaspoonful of tincture of valerian, or 10 drops of hartshorn and water.
Observations.——The habits of the patient, whether intemperate in eating and drinking, or otherwise, also whether he be short-necked, of a florid complexion, or the reverse, ought to be taken into account; otherwise danger may be incurred in adopting active treatment without the advice of medical men, who ought to be consulted at the commencement.
