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As very green ftools are generally preceded by and accom- 

 panied with a great deal of griping and diftrefs to the infant, 

 they feem to me to indicate unufual acrimony in the bile, 

 and probably fome degree of depraved fecretion in the liver. 

 Sometimes this morbid tendency is of £hort duration, fome- 

 times it continues troublefome for weeks. In the former cafes, 

 caftor oil in moderate quantity will be found a good remedy ; 

 it evacuates fpeedily the contents of the bowels, and at the 

 fame time flieaths the infide of the inteftinal canal againft 

 their acrimony. In the more obftinate cafes, where oil only 

 affords temporary relief, calomel is the only remedy I have 

 found to produce permanent good efFeds. I am inclined to 

 think it operates not merely by evacuating, but by correding 

 that tendency to depraved fecretion which in bad cafes pro- 

 bably exifts. To infants under fix months old I generally 

 begin with half-grain dofes, given at bed time, rubbed into a 

 powder, with a little white fugar. If this quantity do not 

 procvire two or three motions in the courfe of the following 

 day, the dofe may be increafed to three-quarters of a grain, 

 or even a grain. It may be repeated in this manner every 

 night, or every fecond night, according to the degree of diftrefs 

 and ftrength of the patient, until the ftools affume a natural 

 appearance. This they feldom fail to do in a week or two, 

 and then all griping and uneafinefs ceafe. It will rarely be 

 neceffary to give more than from four to eight grains of 

 calomel on fuch occafions, and I can with the utmoft confidence 

 alTert that I have never known it to do any mifchief, and very 

 feldom to fail of producing the defired efFeds. Nor is it any 



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