218 On Diseases and Accidents of Farmers. 



added. Bathing the feet in warm water, will aid the ope- 

 ration of the medicine, and tend to relieve the pain. When 

 the bowels are obstinately bound, a laxative injection 

 should be given.^ During the operation of the medicine 

 or injection, care must be taken to avoid exposure to cold. 

 If the pain return after the bowels shall have been opened, 

 twenty or thirty drops of laudanum, may be taken every 

 half hour, until relief be obtained. The warm bath should 

 also be used, and will speedily ease the pain. For want 

 of a proper bathing tub, a large washing tub may be used. 

 In this the person may sit on a stool, surrounded by a blan- 

 ket, with his head out, and bathe his belly with the 

 water : or if he cannot do this, let him sit over very hot 

 water, having his feet in a smaller tub of water less heated, 

 for half an hour : he should then be speedily wiped dry, 

 put to bed between warm blankets, and take a draught 

 of weak warm ginger or mint tea. Children in whom 

 colics frequently occur, are to be treated in the same way : 

 they can be immersed in warm water. In infants and 

 young children, pains in the bowels are commonly caused, 

 by superabundance of acid in the stomach and bowels. 

 The proper purge for them is calcined magnesia, (a me- 

 dicine which operates in a small dose,) mixecl with pep- 

 permint infusion, or essence of peppermint and water. 

 As it is perfectly safe, great caution in the dose is not ne- 

 cessary, one or two tea-spoonsful may be given in water. 

 When the pain in the bowels is very severe in grown 

 persons, or has been permitted to continue for some hours, 

 without any medicine being taken, twelve ounces of blood 

 should, if possible, be lost, in addition to the other means 



* This may be composed of a pint of warm water, a wine- 

 glass full of sweet oil, or melted hogs' fat, one do. of molasses, 

 and one large tea-spoonful of table salt. A pewter syringe 

 should always be used in preference to a bladder and pipe. 



