JAUNDICE. 379 



and morning. In the case of a man living in rooms it is often difficult to get any 

 one to do it, although of course when a man is married it is easy enough. There is 

 one thing, a shampooer from the nearest Turkish bath will generally come in for 

 half an hour when his work is done for a shilling or two. If the skin becomes 

 tender, or if for any other reason the rubbing cannot be continued, hot fomentations 

 may be substituted. A piece of flannel rung out of hot water, folded in the middle 

 and covered with a rather larger piece of oil-silk or thin mackintosh will answer 

 admirably. It should be renewed as often as it gets cold. 



People with jaundice are generally very low-spirited, and often drowsy, and 

 quite unfit for any mental work. In most cases there is no occasion for them to 

 remain in bed. They should get up late, dress leisurely, and then go in the sitting- 

 room and spend the day lying on the sofa covered with a rug, or sitting in an arm- 

 i-hair by the fire. The great thing is to have a novel or two by your side, and drop 

 off to sleep when you are tired. It is of no use trying to see people 011 business, at 

 least unless it is very urgent ; for with all that bile circulating in the system your 

 brain is not clear enough for serious work. A man with jaundice generally feels so 

 frightfully despondent that he is apt to think he never can get over it, and yet it 

 nearly "always comes all right in a week or two. The great thing is not to catch 

 cold, and not to return to solid food until you are quite sure you are out of the 

 bush. 



Constipation is a very great trouble. For days and days you have no call from 

 nature, and when you do it is agony. You spend an hour or more over that simple 

 operation, and the motion is so hard and unyielding that it is passed with the 

 greatest pain. Sometimes relief will be afforded by pressing with the hand on the 

 lower part of the back. It is a good plan to take one of the sugar and grey 

 powders (Pr. 71) every four hours. If after two or three days you obtain no relief 

 from them, try chloride of ammonium twenty grains every four hours. If you 

 watch your urine day by day, and also the motions when they are passed, you will 

 be able to tell how you are getting on, and whether the medicine is doing you good. 

 If the urine gets lighter in colour, or if the motions get darker, you ai*e getting 

 better. When it is all over you will probably find it necessary to go away for a 

 change of air, for jaundice is a thing that pulls one down, and takes away all desire 

 for work. It may seem hard to have to go away after losing so much time in 

 the sick-room, but there is no help for it, and it is really economy of time, for if 

 you do not get thoroughly rid of it you are very likely to have a relapse. When 

 once it is quite gone, and you feel well and strong again, there is no reason why it 

 should ever come back. 



If the grey powders fail to act on the bowels, and very often they do fail, take 

 either Friedrichshall or Pullna water.. Try half a tumblerful every morning, with 

 an equal quantity of warm water. It is much better to take it tepid than cold. 



Should the above mode of treatment fail, we should advise a trial of purified 

 bile from either the ox or the pig. As it is not desirable that it should come in 

 contact with the stomach it should be taken in capsules. These capsules are obtain- 

 able from almost any chemist. They usually contain five grains each of prepared or 

 Concentrated bile, which, roughly speaking, is equal to about a hundred grains of 



