294 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



cf th? system. Frequently the gas accumulates so quickly in the stomach and 

 intestines, and leads to such an amount of distension of the abdomen, that patients 

 have to loosen their clothes from inability to bear their tightness. In many people 

 flatulence is always produced by the use of any food which is liable to undergo rapid 

 fermentation. 



Fortunately, we have many drugs at our command which prove useful in the 

 treatment of this complaint. "When it is dependent on indigestion, the rules ap- 

 plicable to the treatment of that condition may be advantageously followed. "When 

 not obviously associated with dyspepsia, it may often be cured by the avoidance of 

 vegetable food, and tea and beer. Sugar and starchy foods must be avoided or 

 sparingly eaten ; and thin, well- browned toast may be substituted for bread. The 

 meals should be very moderate, the food well masticated, and drinking postponed 

 till the meal is nearly finished, or better still, till an hour or so after its completion. 

 A due regulation of the periods for taking food will often suffice to obviate the 

 flatulence which belongs to emptiness. It should be remembered that tea is especially 

 obnoxious to flatulent people. Half-fed seamstresses, who subsist chiefly on weak 

 tea and bread-and-butter, are frequent sufferers from this complaint. 



A very common remedy for flatulence is a dose of sal-volatile from thirty to 

 forty drops in a little water. It seldom effects a cure, and at the best can .be 

 regarded only as a palliative. One of the best remedies with which we are 

 acquainted is oil of cajeput three drops occasionally on a piece of sugar. We 

 have given it hundreds and hundreds of times, and had every reason to be satisfied 

 with it. It does not prevent the formation of wind, but it brings it off* the 

 stomach and eases the chest. Any one suffering from flatulence would do well 

 to try this. Sometimes oil of cloves or oil of carraway is given in the same dose 

 and in a similar manner. Horseradish often proves very useful from half a 

 tea-spoonful to a tea-spoonful of the compound spirits of horseradish being taken 

 three or four times a day in a little water. Drop doses of pure chloroform taken 

 in a little water often succeed in dispelling the wind. Oxley's Essence of Ginger, 

 an old-fashioned remedy, often does good in flatulence. 



Charcoal is of great value in many cases. Sometimes the wind is produced 

 in enormous quantities" and with great rapidity, giving rise to distension, eructation, 

 and mental depression, the sufferer complaining only of these symptoms, and not 

 of pain or acidity. This enormous production of gas, irrespective of other 

 symptoms, prevails chiefly among middle-aged women, especially at the change of 

 life. It may be met with during pregnancy or suckling, or less frequently in the 

 victims of consumption. This condition is usually met by the administration 

 of wood charcoal in from five to ten grain doses. When, after a few mouthfuls 

 of food, the wind is formed in a quantity so large that the sufferer is constrained 

 to cease eating, the charcoal should be taken immediately before each meal. When, 

 on the other hand, the patient is not troubled with the wind until half an hour 

 or so after food, the charcoal should be taken soon after the meal. Sometimes 

 profuse formation of wind is accompanied by acidity, and then the charcoal will 

 generally remove both these symptoms. Charcoal may be taken in the form of a 

 powder, but Bragg's Charcoal Biscuits are nicer and are sometimes more efficacious. 



