Ourselves, our food, and our physic / [Benjamin Ridge].

  • Ridge, Benjamin
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ourselves, our food, and our physic / [Benjamin Ridge]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Now, if Nature always tries to eject as speedily as possible all actually foreign poisons taken into the stomach, she equally endeavours to do the same with those that are self-generated; and if she is unable to accomplish it her¬ self, we must aid her with an emetic, which should always be given after a full meal. Emetics, the most beneficial of medical agents (especially for children), have gone out of fashion, because they have been improperly given on empty stomachs, to the great distress of the patients, and failure of purpose. When they are necessary for adults or grown up persons, the above advice should be attended to as closely as possible, the following prescriptions will be found valuable. 8. Take— Ipecacuanha powder. 15 to 20 grains. Antimonial wine . 2 drachms. Water .. 1 to 1^ ounces. Mix. To make an emetic. 9. Or— Antimonial wine, 3 to 6 drachms, with 1 to 11- ounces of water. After the first vomit the patient should drink warm water. Vomiting will seldom occur more than three times, —the first expels the solid contents of the stomach,—the second gets rid of the more acrid matters,—and the third produces great action on the liver by mere mechanical pressure of the floating ribs upon it, and so relieves it of biliary excess. Now, these are precisely the actions which do the great good in the first stages of fever ; and, therefore, it is cor¬ rect physiology to say that emetics tend to cut fevers short; and it will be seen how closely these artificial actions resemble those which Nature herself endeavours to do. If, however, the time be passed for their administration, they will prove hurtful if given, and never should be given at the advent of scarlet fever, for reasons previously explained. We have thus far considered the forms of alkaline medi-