156 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



at all it should be given in small quantities, and well diluted. Hock, claret, and dry 

 sherry are the best. You want your wines light, but you want them good. Regular 

 exercise in the open air is enjoined, and if there is much debility, horse exercise 

 is the thing. The bowels will require careful attention, and benefit will often be 

 derived from waters which are not only purgative, but contain iron, such, for 

 example, as the springs of Harrogate, Cheltenham, Leamington, Homburg, and 

 Kissingen. 



When on the high road to recovery, the sufferer from liver disorder will often 

 derive benefit from the use of the nitro-muriatic acid bath. This is prepared by 

 adding two ounces of strong hydrochloric and one ounce of strong nitric acid to 

 two gallons of water, at a temperature of 96 or 98 degrees. Both feet are to 

 be placed in the bath, while the legs and thighs, the region over the liver, and 

 both arms, are sponged alternately, or the abdomen may be swathed in flannel 

 soaked in the water. The process is to be continued for half an hour night and 

 morning. It is absolutely necessary that a wooden tub should be used, as the 

 acid very soon destroys any ordinary metal bath. The sponges and towels should 

 be placed in cold water after use, or they too will soon be destroyed. It is not 

 absolutely necessary to prepare a fresh bath on every occasion, and the same may 

 be kept in use for several days. All you have to do is to add one drachm of 

 hydrochloric and half a drachm of nitric acid with a pint of water, to make up 

 for waste, and then to heat about a quarter of the fluid in an earthen pipkin, 

 and so bring the whole up to the required temperature. 



In many liver complaints the abdominal compress will be found useful. It 

 consists of two or three thicknesses of linen rung out of cold water, placed over 

 the seat of pain, and covered with a rather larger piece of oiled silk. The whole 

 is kept in position by a flannel or linen roller passing round the body. It may 

 be worn several nights in succession, the parts being well sponged with cold water 

 and rubbed with a coarse towel on removing it in the morning. 



In the treatment of functional diseases of the liver, rest and change are most 

 valuable, both as means of cure and prevention. The worry of business and 

 the burden of domestic cares should be removed for a time, and the monotonous 

 scenes of every-day life exchanged for the hill-top and wild moorland. Should 

 this be impossible, the long hours of mental and physical labour should be 

 abridged, and more time given for the daily renewal of nervous energy. Man is a 

 working animal, but it is very easy to do too much. 



BLEEDING FROM THE BOWELS. 



Blood in the motions is often due to piles. Ignorance of this fact sometimes gives 

 rise to needless alarm. In every case in which the stools are found to be mixed 

 with blood, the patient should be examined for piles, for often enough the blood 

 does really come from the bowels. Haemorrhage from the intestines is not of un- 

 frequent occurrence in typhoid fever and dysentery. When blood appears in the 

 stools it has generally undergone much alteration in character, the amount of change 

 depending on the quantity and source, and also, to some extent, on the rapidity with 



