580 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



join some of the milder kinds with both the purgatives and 

 glysters that are employed ; and it has been very properly ad- 

 vised to give always the chief of antispasmodics, that is, an opi- 

 ate, after the operation of purgatives is finished. 



MDCXL. In consideration of the overstretched, tense, and 

 dry state of the intestines, and especially of the spasmodic con- 

 strictions that prevail, fomentations and warm bathing have been 

 proposed as a remedy ; and are said to have been employed with 

 advantage : but it has been remarked, that very warm baths 

 have not been found so useful as tepid baths long continued. 



MDCXLI. Upon the supposition that this disease depends 

 especially upon an atony of the alimentary canal, tonic remedies 

 seem to be properly indicated. Accordingly, chalybeates, and 

 various bitters, have been employed ; and, if any tonic, the Pe- 

 ruvian bark might probably be useful. 



MDCXLII. But as no tonic remedy is more powerful than 

 cold applied to the surface of the body, and cold drink thrown 

 into the stomach, so such a remedy has been thought of in this 

 disease. Cold drink has been constantly prescribed, and cold 

 bathing has been employed with advantage ; and there have 

 been several instances of the disease being suddenly and entire- 

 ly cured by the repeated application of snow to the lower belly. 



MDCXLIII. It is hardly necessary to remark, that, in the 

 diet oftympanitic persons, all sorts of food ready to become flat- 

 ulent in the stomach are to be avoided ; and it is probable, 

 that the fossil acids and neutral salts, as antizymics, may be 

 useful. 



MDCXLIV. In obstinate and desperate cases of tympani- 

 tes., the operation of the paracentesis has been proposed; but it 

 is a very doubtful remedy, and there is hardly any testimony of 

 its having been practised with success. It must be obvious, 

 that this operation is a remedy suited especially, and almost 

 only to the tympanites abdominalis ; the existence of which, 

 separately from the intestinalis, is very doubtful, at least not 

 easily ascertained. Even if its existence could be ascertained, 

 yet it is not very likely to be cured by this remedy ; and how 

 far the operation might be safe in the tympanites intestinalis, 

 is not yet determined by any proper experience. 





