DYSENTERY. 433 



find on how small an amount of nutriment wheat-meal bread, for 

 example he can subsist and grow better. I repeat, then, the dys- 

 peptic should not oppress his stomach with food, and should eat 

 only those articles that agree with him. If he can take only an 

 ounce, or the fourth part of that amount, let it be so. If he will 

 persevere in not oppressing himself, he will soon grow better and 

 be able to take more. Flesh, he should remember, is no sort of 

 criterion for health. 



I lay down this important rule, however, that the dyspeptic 

 should take the most healthy articles for a healthy stomach. But 

 be sure to regulate the quantity accordingly as the stomach can 

 bear. 



As regards water-treatment proper, everything that is calcu- 

 lated to promote the tone and vigor of the constitution is a help in 

 dyspepsia. The whole force of the treatment is brought to bear 

 advantageously in many cases. The timid are particularly advised 

 to try the free use of the rubbing wet-sheet. 



DYSENTERY. 



If I were to give in a few words the great golden rule, 

 for treating dysentery, as well as cholera-morbus and bowel- 

 complaints generally, it would be, keep the bowels cool, the head 

 cool, and the extremities warm. If all this were done faithfully in 

 all cases from the first, few, very few, would ever die of such 

 attacks. But all of this implies good judgment, skill and persever- 

 ance. In dysentery, for example, a sleepy parent allows the disease 

 to progress for half or the whole of a sultry night, and in the 

 morning it may be too late. The fatal work is done. I repeat, such 

 attacks must be taken at the very first. 



The tepid hip-bath is an invaluable remedy in this complaint. 

 If there is in the whole range of human diseases one instance 

 wherein a remedial agent can be made to act in a manner most 

 agreeably efficacious in subduing pain, it is the sitting-bath in this. 

 In the tormina and tenesmus of dysentery, a child may be writhing 

 in agony a great portion of the time ; opiates and injections and all 

 other remedies fail in bringing relief; if the child is set or held in a 

 tub of tepid or warm water the pain will soon cease. If the 

 remedy is used sufficiently often, the water being of proper tempera- 

 ture, we are certain of securing our object so far as the reliev- 

 ing of pain is concerned. Whether the patient can live is another 

 question ; but if death even must be the result in any given case, it 

 is certainly very desirable that we make this death as easy as may 

 be. This every parent can well appreciate. 



Let this bath be used thus: A common wooden tub is sufficient, 

 the size being suited somewhat to the patient's age. It is better 

 to elevate the back of the tub a few incnes by placing under it a 

 brick or a block of wood. If the tub is of pretty good depth, all 



