TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 329 



1 . WATERBRASH.— Pyrosis is the medical name for this disease, but 

 It is usually called Waterbrash. It Is a peculiar affection of the stomach, in 

 which the patient brings up frequently a considerable quantity of thin watery 

 liquid, sometimes insipid, at others intensely acid. Before the fluid is brought 

 up, often there is more or less pain experienced at the pit of the stomach. This 

 complaint attacks, mostly, persons past the middle age, particularly females, 

 and the fit comes on generally in the morning and afternoon. It usually begins 

 with a severe pain in the pit of the stomach, attended with a feeling of con- 

 striction or oppression, and soon after a quantity of thin watery fluid is 

 thrown up, which is sometimes insipid, at other times it has a highly acid or 

 burning taste. The causes of this complaint are various, but whatever dis- 

 orders the stomach may give rise to it. It appears to be owing to a peculiar 

 state of irritation of the stomach; and is most certainly relieved by the use of 

 the white oxide of bismuth, from 2 to 3 grs. made into pills with extract of 

 gentian, 3 times a day. This medicine will often perfectly cure waterbrash; 

 but attention to the diet, as laid down under dyspepsia, is of much conse- 

 quence, and will be absolutely necessary in order to render the cure permanent. 

 A diet of plain animal food may be allowed, with which may be united the 

 use of biscuits, home-made bread, and preparations of rice and milk. Daily 

 exercise must also be taken, and frictions, with the flesh-brush, over the region 

 of the stomach and bowels, are of no small service. The bowels must of 

 course be kept open by purgatives, when necessary, even when making use of 

 other curative means. 



2. Plump wheat carefully burned to a charcoal, and powdered, a tea- 

 spoonful into the nursing bottle before filling it, once a day. The same, taken 

 before each meal, is good for dyspepsia. 



1. RINGWORM. — A disease of the skin appearing in small circulal 

 patches, or rings of vesicles round the circumference of a circle of appar- 

 ently healthy skin: these vesicles are small, and contain a transparent fluid, 

 which is discharged in three or four days, when little dark scabs form over 

 them. Sometimes there is a succession of the circles on the upper parts of 

 the body, as the face and neck, and the arms and shoulders. 



The more formidable and infectious species of ringworm appears in dis- 

 tinct patches of an irregularly circular figure, on the scalp, head, and neck. 

 It commences with clusters of small light yellow pustules, which soon break 

 and form thin scabs over each patch; and these, if neglected, become thick 

 and hard by gathering on one another. If the scabs are removed, however, 

 the surface of the patches is left red and shining, but studded with white ele- 

 vated points, in some of which, minute globules of pus again appear in a few 

 days. As the patches extend, the hair covering them becomes lighter in its 

 color, and sometimes breaks off short; and as this process is repeated, the 

 roots of the hair are destroyed, and at length, there remains uninjured only a 

 narrow border of hair round the head. It generally occurs in children of three 

 or four years old and upwards, and often continues for se^ral years. It can 

 be considered as about to terminate, only when the redness and exfoliations 

 disappear together, and the hair begins to grow of its natural color and t««- 



