THE APERIENT LINIMENT

The simplest form of an aperient enema, is warm water; but barley-water, or thin gruel, or even milk and water, are to be preferred at all times, as they are of a more bland and less irritating nature. If it be desirable to increase the strength of the injection, castor oil may be added.

The proportions of fluid which are necessary for the different stages of life, under ordinary circumstances, maybe stated as follows:--An infant at its birth requires about one fluid ounce; a child between the age of one and five years, from three to four fluid ounces; and a youth of ten or fifteen, from six to eight fluid ounces.

The mode of administering an injection to an infant deserves particular attention, as injury might be caused by its being performed in a careless or unskilful manner. A gum elastic pipe should be always used instead of the hard ivory tube. Having smeared this over with lard, and placed the infant on its left side, with its knees bent up in the lap of the nurse, it is to be passed a couple of inches into the bowel, in a direction not parallel to the axis of the body, but rather inclined to the left.

The latter circumstance should never be neglected, for if not attended to, there will be difficulty in administering the injection. The fluid must then be propelled very gradually, or it will be instantly rejected; on the whole being thrown up (the pipe carefully and slowly withdrawn), the child must be kept quietly reposing on its nurse’s lap, and in the same posture for some little time.

THE APERIENT LINIMENT.

A liniment to be rubbed on the stomach is another resource in cases of habitual costiveness, and will frequently be attended with great success when repeated purgatives have been resisted. Olive or castor oil may be used for this purpose; they must be warmed and rubbed over the abdomen night and morning, for five or ten minutes. Perhaps the best form of liniment that can be made use of is the following:--

Compound soap liniment, one ounce; Compound tincture of aloes, half an ounce.

Sect. II.—CALOMEL.

Calomel is one of the most useful medicines we possess; but though powerful for good, it is by no means powerless for mischief, and pages might be written upon the evil effects which have resulted from its indiscriminate use in the nursery; medical men are daily and hourly witnessing this fact.

It is particularly eligible in the diseases of children; but then it is quite impossible for unprofessional persons to judge when it may be appropriately exhibited. And it cannot be too generally known, that the effect of this medicine upon the evacuations is always to make them appear unnatural.

From ignorance of this fact, calomel is often repeated again and again to relieve that very condition which it has itself produced, causing, but too frequently, a degree of irritation in the delicate lining membrane of the bowel, which it may be very difficult for a medical man to remove, and perhaps a source of misery to the child as long as it lives.

Its frequent exhibition has also another evil attending it, for “the immoderate use of mercury in early infancy produces more, perhaps, than any other similar cause, that universal tendency to decay, which, in many instances, destroys almost every tooth at an early age.”[FN#20]

[FN#20] Bell on the Teeth.