MEDICINE. 
W attended with acute pain in the bowels, 
with a strong full pulse, blood-letting will 
be necessary, but it must be practised with 
caution, especially in warm climates, where 
the employment of powerful antiphlogistic 
measures is often succeeded by a sudden 
and dangerous degree of debility; gentle 
emetics should be administered, they are 
not only useful in emptying the primae vi®, 
but they also determine to the skin ; they 
■will be more efficacious when given in such 
small and repeated doses, as not to excite 
immediate vomiting, unless the oppression 
at the stomach is urgent ; the emetics gene- 
rally employed in dysentery are ipecacu- 
anha and tartar emetic, and, at the early 
periods of the disease, they will be more 
efficacious when combined ; the morbid 
and noxious contents of the intestines, the 
most pepnicious source of irritation in dy- 
sentery, naust be expelled by cathartics, 
those most generally celebrated are, tire 
ipecacuanha and tartar emetic, the former 
is, however, most frequently anployed, it 
may be given either alone, or in combina- 
tion with the crystals of tartar, in such 
doses as will produce some degree of nau- 
sea, and repeated when the nausea abates ; 
the calomel is an excellent remedy where 
there is a tendency to inflammation, but it 
should never be given alone, its operation 
is rendered both more easy and certain, by 
combining it with other cathartics; the 
most effectual remedy, however, in general, 
is a simple solution of Epsom salts, or Glau- 
ber’s, or it may be given in a diluted infu- 
sion of senna, with a considerable propor- 
tion of manna; the cream of tartar with 
tamarinds, the phosphate of soda, and cas- 
tor oil, will make an useful variety ; after 
the operation of the cathartic is finished, 
it will' be advisable to administer opiates, 
and they will be more efficacious if given 
with nauseating doses of emetics ; the pul- 
vis ipecacuanhffi compositus is a good medi- 
cine ; the hyoscyarnus, by its anodyne and 
gently laxative qualities, seems eminently 
adapted to this disease. The warm bath is 
often used with advantage ; fomentation of 
the abdomen is more frequently service- 
able, but the most effectual remedy is a 
large blister applied over the abdomen ; in 
mild cases, however, so sevei e a remedy is 
not necessary ; the addition of strong pep- 
pers to the fomentations, may, in such 
cases, answer our intentions; the pain at- 
tending the tenesmus will be allayed by 
fomenting the anus with hot water, or with 
the decoction of chamomile flowers, with 
some tinctura opii sprinkled on the stupes ; 
stranguary is not an uncommon symptom, 
independent of cantharides, it will be effec- 
tually relieved by fomenting the pubes and 
perinasura : mucilaginous demulcent liquids 
must be given freely, for the purpose of 
defending the intestines against the acri- 
mony of their contents, and mucilaginous, 
and oily clysters should be employed once 
or twice a day, or more, they are very ser- 
viceable for the same intention as the muci- 
laginous liquids, and act also as a fomenta- 
tion ; they should consist of a strong decoc- 
tion of linseed or starch, or they may be 
composed of milk and oil, united by means 
of mucilage. In the advanced and chronic 
stage of the disease, as acidity of the sto- 
mach chiefly prevails at that period, absor- 
bents will be useful, as the mistura creta- 
cea, aqua calcis, pulvis cretae compositus, 
&c. combined with opiates; astringents 
will also, at this period of the disease, be 
proper, as the kino, limmatoxylum, catechu, 
&c. and if the powers of the stomach be 
much weakened, they may be combined 
with chalybeates. The tone of the bowels 
will be restored, by administering quassia, 
bark, angustura, or Colombo; an infusion of 
gentian and cinnamon in port wine is re- 
commended ; it will always be advisable to 
join aromatics with bitters ; a purgative of 
the calomel and rhubarb should be given 
from time to time in this form of the dis- 
ease, and when it remains obstinate, we 
may always suspect visceial obstruction; 
should ihis, upon examination, be the case, 
mercury, either internally, or by friction,' 
should be employed until some sensible 
effect is produced in the mouth. The diet 
in the first stage should consist of milk, 
sago, panada, salep, Indian arrow-root (ma- 
ranta arundinacea), and rice, the quantity 
being regulated by the appetite ; the sweet 
and subacid fruits may be allowed, and 
they are particularly serviceable when there 
is much bile in the prim-* vi®. In the 
more advanced stages, the ripe fruits are 
condemned, but it does not, however, 
appear, on sufficient grounds, that they 
should be so ; together vvith the farinacea, 
a small quantity of animal food may be 
allowed in the chronic state of the disease, 
provided it does not disagree with the pati- 
ent. The drink at the commencement 
should be either barley or rice water, boil- 
ing water poured upon toasted bread, or 
burnt biscuit, whey, or the decoction of 
hartshorn, and the like ; in the advanced! 
stage of the disease. Port Wine or Madeira ' 
