COLIC. 185 



before breakfast is not a tiling to IM- demised. The hot-water bottle in bed at 



night i.-, a palliative, luu do.-.-, nothing to effect a cure. Many people who have 



<l i'n>m cold feet have assured us that they have derived the greatest benefit 



from putting tin-in into cold water at bed-time. It seems a disagreeable remedy, but 



they say that tin- reaction which almost immediately follows the primary chill i.s 



Mti'ul, and that the plan succeeds admirably. The best way would be to rub 



ihe t'M-t <mhe dry with a bath-towel after bathing them, and then to jump into a 



warm 



COLIC. 



Colic is a very familiar complaint. Sometimes it is known as spasm of the 

 bowels, gripes, or belly-ache. It is characterised by severe twisting pain in the 

 Kelly, especially about the navel. It comes on by fits and starts, is not stationary, 

 but on the contrary moves about from spot to spot. There is no inflammation, 

 and the pain is relieved by pressure. The disorder is accompanied by constipation, 

 and often by vomiting ; there is no fever, and no quickness of the pulse, neither is 

 there that depressing anxiety which occurs in inflammation of the bowels, although 

 the pain may be as severe. 



Colic occurs more frequently in women than in men. It is probable that the 

 greater sensitiveness of the fair sex, and their susceptibility to mental and moral 

 emotions, favour the development of this complaint. It is more common in youth 

 and adult age than in advanced life. It has been noticed that the particular 

 temperament of the patient will confer a proneness to, or tend to give an immunity 

 from, this complaint ; those who are nervous or melancholic being more liable to it 

 than those who are of an indifferent or phlegmatic disposition. A general condition 

 of ill-health, or lowered vitality, predisposes to its occurrence. Those who are pulled 

 down by over- work or anxiety, or by some chronic illness, are not infrequently 

 sufferers. During the convalescence from fever, and after large losses of blood, 

 colic is by no means uncommon. Excessive suckling, by lowering the general 

 condition of health, favours its development, and the same may be said of excessive 

 menstruation, " whites," and bleeding piles. The influence of cold in producing an 

 attack of colic is remarkable, especially when cold is applied to the feet. There are 

 many people who are sure to suffer from colic if their feet get wet or cold. It would 

 seem that mental fatigue, as that produced by long-continued and great intellectual 

 efforts, may be followed by the same result. In people whose vocations are such as 

 to demand a continued strain of thought, or whose hopes and fears are excited by 

 speculation, as in commercial enterprises, and in those whose faculties are stimulated 

 by some career of ambition, it is by no means uncommon. Among the causes of 

 colic, one of the most frequent is the presence of some indigestible article of food 

 in the bowels. Shell-fish, dried salt meats, pork, badly-cooked food, unripe fruit, 

 and the like, are great sinners in this respect. That flatulence will often produce 

 colic, especially in children, is a fact so familiar as scarcely to merit comment. The 

 movement of gases from one part of the intestine to another will explain the shifting 

 of the pain. Constipation is undoubtedly the commonest cause of the complaint, 

 which is usually not relieved until the bowels are moved. Even when there is 



