VOMITING. 577 



about right ; for older children the milk may be increased to a half or two-thirds. 

 Should even this fail, and the vomiting continue, one might try milk diluted with 

 three or even four times its quantity of very thin arrowroot- water ; or the child 

 might be fed on cream and water only one part of cream to three or four of water. 

 In the distressing morning vomiting of drunkards, arsenic will effect a cure 

 with almost unfailing certainty, and will simultaneously improve the state of the 

 stomach, and restore both appetite and digestion. The vomit in these cases is 

 generally intensely bitter and sour, and of a green colour. It is usually accom- 

 panied by great straining and distress, and generally very little or nothing is 

 ejected, and then it is called "dry vomiting." The arsenic mixture (Pr. 40) may 

 be employed, a tea-spoonful being taken four times a day, and the first dose 

 half an hour before rising. Ipecacuanha will sometimes succeed in these cases, 

 but arsenic acts far more certainly. 



In that form of vomiting to which we have referred as coming on suddenly and 

 without pain or nausea, arsenic employed as above will nearly always succeed ; 

 ipecacuanha will prove almost equally efficacious. Should there be constipation it 

 will be as well to get the bowels thoroughly open by some mild aperient before com- 

 mencing treatment. 



The vomiting of cancer and ulcer of the stomach may yield to ipecacuanha, but 

 sometimes this fails, and then arsenic may be employed. Sometimes the arsenic 

 mixture (Pr. 40) succeeds when almost everything else has been employed in vain. 

 Alum in from six to ten grain doses, dissolved in half an ounce of water, some 

 times checks obstinate vomiting occurring in consumptive patients, especially when 

 it is brought on by the cough. 



We have by no means exhausted our list of remedies for vomiting. In the 

 treatment of this complaint bismuth has long enjoyed a deservedly high reputation. 

 It is commonly given in combination with hydrocyanic acid ; three drops of dilute 

 hydrocyanic acid may be added to each dose of the bismuth mixture (Pr. 18). We 

 have already insisted on the necessity of giving bismuth before meals and not after. 

 Chloroform may be used for the same purpose, two or three drops being given in a 

 wine-glassful of water. Creasote will sometimes succeed when other remedies hava 

 failed. The dose is three drops, which any chemist will make into a pill for you. 

 It should be given either three times a day or every four hours, about half an hour 

 before meals. Often enough ten drops of laudanum in a little water, or a hypo- 

 dermic injection of morphia, will succeed better than anything. Sometimes an 

 effervescing mixture will speedily allay the irritability of the stomach. In many 

 cases simple soda-water, with or without brandy, answers admirably. A bag of ice 

 or a blister applied to the pit of the stomach often succeeds, and small pieces of ice 

 slowly swallowed are useful. The spinal ice-bag does good in sea-sickness (see SEA- 

 SICKNESS), and might be used in other forms of vomiting, as, for example, the 

 vomiting of pregnancy. Dry champagne is often retained when everything else is 

 rejected. Wyeth's Soda Mint or Neutralising Tablets are useful. 



But after all, the regulation of the diet, both as regards quantity and quality, is 

 the great thing to be aimed at In illustration of this fact we cannot do better 

 than quote a most striking and instructive case recorded by the celebrated Dr. 

 37 



