I'KOFLUVJA. 325 



the most improper purgatives. " I advanced this doctrine be- 

 fore I saw Dr. Zimmermann's book ; but I am pleased to see it 

 there so fully confirmed, and I hope that physicians will lose 

 their attachment to rhubarb. It is not a very effectual purga- 

 tive, unless given in considerable doses. It has been preferred, 

 however, on the grounds of its astringency being greater than 

 that of others. If it is so, I say it is so much the worse, as 

 that proceeds on the old doctrine of astringents being necessary 

 in the cure of dysentery, the bad effects of which Dr. Zimmer- 

 mann will teach you." 



MLXXXI. Vomiting has been held a principal remedy in 

 this disease ; and may be usefully employed in the beginning of 

 it, with a view to both the state of the stomach and of the fever : 

 But it is not necessary to repeat it often ; and unless the emetics 

 employed operate also by stool, they are of little service. Ipe- 

 cacuanha seems to possess no specific power ; and it proves only 

 useful when so managed as to operate chiefly by stool. 



" Nothing is more common than to find in dysentery, that the 

 stomach is peculiarly affected, whether from the fever or from an 

 affection of the intestine, and a loss of appetite even to a degree of 

 vomiting and nausea. Any interruption in the motions of the 

 stomach, in preventing the progress of its fluids, favours the 

 production of various crudities, which passing down into the intes- 

 tines, may aggravate the disease. In these cases, therefore, the 

 cure has with propriety been begun by obviating the affection 

 of the stomach by the use of a full vomiting." 



MLXXXII. For relieving the constriction of the colon, and 

 evacuating the retained faeces, glysters may sometimes be use- 

 ful : but they are seldom so effectual as laxatives given by the 

 mouth ; and acrid glysters, if they be not effectual in evacuating 

 the colon, may prove hurtful by stimulating the rectum too 

 much. 



MLXXXI II. The frequent and severe griping attending 

 this disease, leads almost necessarily to the use of opiates ; and 

 they are very effectual for the purpose of relieving from the 

 gripes ; but, by occasioning an interruption of the action of the 

 small guts, they favour the contriction of the colon, and thereby 

 sometimes aggravate the disease : and if, at the same time, the 

 use of them supersede, in any measure, the employing of pur- 



