INFANCY. 
and a warm purge. Slimy stools, with an 
appearance of hiccup, should be treated 
with magnesia and other absorbents, warm- 
ed by the addition of a little grated nut- 
meg. White and clayey stools are best cor- 
rected by a drop or two of the water of 
kali, mixed with the preceding aperients. 
A soap clyster will likewise be useful if the 
complaint be attended with much griping; 
nor is some light cordial to be withheld ; and 
fomenting the belly with a little warm 
brandy, or a decoction of camomile-flowers 
and white poppy-heads, will be a great as- 
sistance to the other parts of the treatment. 
Wherever purgative medicines are used 
for children, the form of compounding them 
is a material circumstance. They should 
always possess the addition of aromatics, 
especially those of the carminative kind, as 
a little ginger, pounded cardamum seeds, 
dill or aniseed water. The pain is hereby 
relieved, the healthy action of the mouths 
of the lacteals renewed, and the morbid ir- 
ritation of the secements of the intestines 
diminished. 
Improper food is the common cause of 
infantile diarrhoeas : either an acetous fer- 
mentation is excited in the stomach, or the 
gastric juice is changed in its nature, and 
secrets an acid of its own. Other derange- 
ments of the bowels may proceed from the 
use of improper diet ; but acidity from one 
or other of these causes is the common ef- 
fect. The chief proof of acidity is in the 
green colour of the evacuations ; these are 
at the same time usually accompanied with 
pain, and watery in their consistence. If 
the pain be extreme, the legs rigidly drawn 
up towards the belly, and the ejections small 
in quantity, but very frequent, and a mere 
watery discharge, or intermixed with slime 
or mucus alone, the disease is then called 
watery gripes. This, however, is a com- 
plaint of the lower and larger intestines ra- 
ther than of the stomach or digestion itself, 
and of course evinces less proof of acidity, 
whieh is peculiarly dependent upon the 
stomach. 
Acidity is also said to be evinced by the 
regurgitation of curdled milk ; but this is 
not strictly correct. The milk of all ani- 
mals is curdled, in a state of the most per- 
fect health, before it becomes digested, or 
rather perhaps during the very process of 
digestion. We cannot now enter into the 
question, why this change should be neces- 
sary • it is enough to state it to be a fact, 
and to caution the mother against loading 
the stomach of her child with aperients or 
absorbent earths, merely because of such 
curdled regurgitations. The regurgitation 
is usually the simple effect of superabun- 
dance, and the curdled appearance a proof 
of healthy digestion. The stimulus of super- 
abundance in infancy, as well as in the other 
stages of life, frequently excites hiccup; an 
affection peculiarly useful to infants, as the 
action hereby produced enables the stomach 
to discharge its contents both through the 
mouth and into the duodenum. But if the 
regurgitated food be not only curdled, but 
evince an acid smell, and especially if the 
breath itself betray such a smell indepen- 
dently of regurgitation, we have then a suf- 
ficient proof of the existence of acidity in 
the stomach from one of the two causes 
now enumerated, and should apply ourselves 
to remedy it. 
The first point is to get rid of the acid, or 
other irritating matter, that actually exists 
in the intestinal canal; and the second is 
to prevent the formation of fresh matter of 
the same kind. The former intention is 
best accomplished by aperients ; and of all 
aperients by calomel; either alone, or in 
conjunction with small doses of rhubarb : 
the latter by changing the nature of the 
morbid action of the secements of the sto- 
mach or intestines, and recovering them to 
their accustomed secretions. This is best 
produced by gentle stimulants, as dill, ani- 
seed, or cinnamon-water, and especially sal 
volatile, of which two or three drops may 
be given at a dose, and which answers the 
double purpose of a stimulant, and a cor- 
rector of acidity. If the former be em- 
ployed, they should be combined with mag- 
nesia, chalk, or other absorbent earths, or 
the aromatic confection, which is an excel- 
lent preparation for this purpose. 
The use of opiates, after the removal of 
the peccant matter, may often prove highly 
serviceable ; but it requires a skill so deli- 
cate, and a judgment so practised, to deter- 
mine the time, and apportion the dose, that 
we dare not recommend opium in any shape 
as a domestic medicine ; it should be alone 
administered under the advice of a judicious 
practitioner. 
Flatulence, or wind, is rather a symptom 
of disease than a disease in itself. It is an 
attendant upon all the complaints we have 
just noticed, and as it commenced so it will 
terminate with them. Yet though a mere 
symptom, it is often found so troublesome, 
whatever be the disorder or state of the 
bowels on which it is dependant, as to re- 
quire specific attention. And here, in con- 
