DIARRHGA. II! 
to quiet the stomach. The subnitrate of bismuth is the remedy that suggests 
itself, for it acts well, not only on this organ, but on the intestines, relieving and 
soothing the irritability of their lining membranes; and thus it checks both 
vomiting and diarrheea. This medicine should be given in large and frequent 
doses, every two hours being none too often; and there will not be any danger 
of poisoning from it if the drug is pure, even if it be persisted in for a week. 
One teaspoonful is suitable for mature dogs of breeds of medium and largest 
size; while one-half this dose can safely be given to all about the size of fox- 
terriers; and one-fourth of a teaspoonful to the smallest toys. 
The bismuth should be obtained in a box or bottle, not in one large powder, 
lest it pack down; and in preparing a dose it should be shaken into a spoon. 
Then by means of a card standing on the edges of the spoon, all above them 
should be swept off, leaving it even full. This drug may be easily administered, 
it being necessary merely to drop it, in dry form, as far back in the throat as 
possible and encourage the patient to take a few swallows of milk or water. 
And since it acts mechanically upon the irritated mucous lining of the stomach 
and intestines, it will be well to restrict the diet as much as possible while it is 
being given. 
If bismuth be administered in proper quantities, it alone will generally con- 
trol vomiting ; but failing to do so in the course of a few hours, with it should be 
combined the sulphate of morphia. If the patient be of medium or largest size 
the dose of the latter should be one-fourth of a grain; if a dog weighing between 
twenty and thirty pounds, it would be one-eighth; while for a toy it would be 
about one-twelfth of a grain. Divided up into powders, each containing the right 
dose, one should be given with each dose of bismuth. 
Reverting to the dietetic treatment of diarrhcea, some authors as well as 
most non-professionals think that when the intestinal discharges are very watery 
and copious, water, and possibly other fluids, must be withheld, being possessed 
of the delusion that what is taken into the stomach in this form is hurried through 
the intestinal canal, and that the more the patients drink, the worse their 
diarrhcea, This is a relic from the musty past. Nearly all, if not all, the water 
in the discharges comes from the blood; and if the drain on it is great, serious 
accidents in circulation are liable to result in consequence of that vital fluid 
being too thick, as it were. Therefore, this loss of the fluid portion of the blood 
should be compensated for by the giving of such fluids as pure water, milk 
and lime-water, milk and the whites of eggs, or meat products. These can 
always be allowed freely excepting in vomiting, during which they may occasion- 
ally be contra-indicated ; but not always, for in some instances a long and deep 
drink of ice-water will stop vomiting when drugs have failed, and certainly such 
an indulgence could do no harm in diarrhoea, nor even in dysentery. 
This calls to mind another dietetic absurdity that is very prevalent ; namely, 
that beef-teas, meat extracts, meat jellies or essences, and the like, cause diar-~ 
