IviEDICINfe. 
hibited ; the diet should be light, of easy 
digestion, not flatulent, and the food should 
he taken in moderate quantities, taking care 
not to oppress the stomach ; but when the 
disease has been of long continuance, a 
more full diet may be allowed ; riding on 
horseback, or in a carriage, and more par- 
ticularly a sea voyage, should, if convenient, 
be advised, or the patient should change 
the air, and try dift’erent situations, until, 
either by accident or by perseverance, he 
finds out a situation to live in, in which the 
disease is rendered less distressing, or is en- 
tirely removed ; repeated blisters should be 
applied about the chest, or an issue be made 
in the neighbourhood : smoking tobacco is 
useful; and garlic or onions, by way of 
sauce, may be also found serviceable. 
Bark, chalybeates, and aloes should be had 
recourse to towards the close of the pa- 
roxysm. 
Colic commences with an acute pain over 
the abdomen, the navel is twisted towards 
the spine, and the muscles of the abdomen 
are spasmodically contracted into separate 
portions, giving it the appearance of a bag 
full of round balls ; there is vomiting of a 
bilious matter, obstinate costiveness, and 
generally coldness of the extremities ; the 
urine is high coloured, is voided in small 
quantity, and with some degree of difficulty 
and pain ; the disease is seldom attended 
with pyrexia in the first instance, Sprae- 
tiraes, however, an inflammation of that 
part of the intestine, where the disease is 
situated, supervenes, and aggravates the 
disease : when the peristaltic motion of the 
whole intestinal canal is inverted, the dis- 
ease is called ileus, which is only to be re- 
garded as a more violent degree of colic ; 
it is, however, more apt to terminate in en- 
teritis, or gangrene. 
The removal of this disease will generally 
be effected by blood-letting, in the repeti- 
tion of which we must be guided by the 
state of the pulse, violence of the attack, 
and strength of the patient ; in all violent 
attacks of colic, if the patient be in tolera- 
ble vigour, it will not only be advisable, 
but prudent to take away a moderate quan- 
tity of blood (except the disease arise, in 
consequence of lead being received into the 
system), more particularly so if the pulse is 
fiill or hard, and there are any symptoms 
denoting a tendency to enteritis, it will, at 
the same time, be the means of relaxing 
the spasm, and procuring stools : the warm 
bath should be ordered, or the abdomen 
should be fbmeuted, and strong peppers and 
spirits may be added to the fomentations j 
friction of the abdomen with warm oil, or 
bags filled with hot sand, or bladders filled 
with hot water, may be employed also with 
great advantage ; blisters or rubefacients, 
together with warm pediluvia, will be re- 
quisite ; antispasmodics should be admini- 
stered internally, and where the disease has 
not been preceded by long costiveness, 
opium will be the most efiicacious remedy, 
especially if vomiting prevents the exhibi- 
tion of cathartics : where, however, the dis- 
ease has been preceded by costiveness, the 
hyoscyamus w'ill be found to be a more 
suitable ren^edy, as along with its narcotic 
it also possesses a gently cathartic quality : 
cathartics must be ordered, and they will 
be more efficacious when given in combi- 
nation ; calomel, above all, ought never to 
be given alone, its operation is always ren- 
dered more certain and easy by combining’ 
it with other cathartics, and the addition 
of a few drops of some essential oil will, in a 
great measure, obviate their griping efi’ects ; 
laxative clysters must be ordered ; at firsf 
they should be mild, and tolerably large ; the 
addition of a portion of oil, or of a solution 
of Epsom salts, will be an useful auxiliary ; 
and if we do not succeed in procuring the 
evacuation of the intestines by the above 
means, we must have recourse to the injec- 
tion of the smoke of tobacco, or a more 
certain and efficacious remedy is, a decoc- 
tion of tobacco, in the proportion of half 
a drachm to four ounces of water, to be 
thrown up as an enema. If all the above 
means prove of no avail, we must have re- 
course to mechanical dilatation, as, by ad- 
ministering one or two ounces of the by- 
drargyrus every hour or two, of a large 
quantity of warm water should be injected 
by means of a large syringe : when every 
purgative, and even all other means that 
are in most common use, have failed, the 
action of the intestines has sometimes been 
effectually excited by throwing cold watCf 
on the lower extremities. 
The Colica Pictonum vel Saturnina, Of 
Colic from Lead, difters from the species 
above described, in not coming on in so 
sudden and violent a manner, and also in 
its cause, that of lead taken into the body, 
under various circumstances, as by exposure 
to the action of it, or by drinking cyder, 
or other liquors, impregnated with it ; the 
disease generally commences with .slight 
uneasiness in the bowels, or with a sense of 
weight, or of an aching, rather than an 
acute pain, about tlie navel, which is in. 
