Obstetrics: the science and the art.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetrics: the science and the art. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    use or keep, and so it passes off b}^ tlie bowels in tlie form of what you call diarrhoea. But it is not diarrhoea, it is whey. I do not fear that I shall mislead the Student by the above observations, because, if he be a man of sense, he will judge for himself, and not from a book; he will inquire what is the nature of these dejections which are accused of being diarrhoea, and if he should find they are such as T have above described, he will perhaps remember my words, and act in accordance with the indications that I have pointed out. If the stools consist of masses of slime—if they are altogether bilious —if they give evidence of an excessive acid saburra, then he will inquire into the particular wants of the case, and prescribe accord- ingly. The mucous, the bilious, or the acid saburra may require only a teaspoonful of castor oil, a small quantity of rhubarb, a portion of magnesia, a half grain of calomel, or calomel with chalk. Perhaps he will be enabled to fulfil the therapeutical indication by prescribing a portion of lime-water and milk, or a little soda or potash mixed with water alone, or mixed in infusion of chamomile or some other bitter or aromatic garden herb. Possibly, he may find the fault to consist in a hyperneuric condition of the muscular apparatus either of the small or of the large intestine, and he will correct such an hyperneuria by means of an anodyne draught. An anodyne draught for the new-born infant should consist of half a drop of laudanum in a teaspoonful of water. To give half a drop of laudanum, let him direct the nurse to put two teaspoonfuls of water into a cup, and add one drop of laudanum thereto, which, being perfectly mixed and compounded, permits him to give, in one teaspoonful of the mixture, just half a drop—the other should be thrown away. 924. Costiveness.—Sometimes the new-born child, instead of being troubled with too many dejections, is affected with costiveness. This costiveness is overcome either by a suppository of molasses candy, of a bit of castile soap, or a camel's-hair pencil dipped in castor oil, and thrust just within the grasp of the sphincter muscle. It may be remedied by an enema of tepid water, or water quickened with a modicum of salt, or molasses, or castor oil: or the child may take a teaspoonful of a weak infusion of rliubarb, or a little magnesia, or a little rhubarb roasted in a saucer until it is slightly browned, or, what is better than all, a pinch of pure precipitated sulphur mixed in water sweetened with honey or honey of roses. Small portions of sulphur, mixed with honey water, appear to me to ope- rate upon the neonatus more kindly than any other therapeutic agent,