TREATMENT. – Lavage or washing out of the stomach is very often useful. A soft rubber tube is passed and used as a siphon. The washing out fluid should be tepid water, with a little Bi- carbonate of Soda, and the patient can learn to perform the operation himself, once or twice daily at first, and less often as improvement sets in.
The diet should contain little starch or sugar, and little fluid should be taken at meal times. The more easily digestible the food the better. Of drugs those most likely to be useful are Nux Vom., Kreasote, Sepia, and Carbo Veg. or Carbo Ammonium Operation may be considered in severe cases.
157. – Sea – Sickness.
This affection, though very distressing, is not serious; it is caused by the motion of the vessel. The retching and vomiting frequently recur, with intervals of extreme physical prostration, a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, Vertigo, Headache etc. The symptoms, especially the Vertigo, are most severe in the upright posture, and are at once relieved by a strictly horizontal one.
Persons of delicate and sensitive organization, with weak heart, quick pulse, and tendency to Palpitation, are most liable to be affected, and are sometimes subject to similar derangement from the oscillations of a carriage or swing.
TREATMENT. – Petrol., Cocc., and Nux V. are the best preventives; and Kreas., Tabac., or Petrol., during the sickness. Petrol should be taken on going on board; a drop or two on a small piece of sugar, or repeated every two or three hours. From personal experience in two voyages across the Atlantic, we recommend this and Tabac. as the best remedies for sea-sickness.
Nux vomica-For Indigestion with Constipation during a sea voyage we found this remedy of great value, and administered it in many cases with marked good results. Verbascum-Alb., Podoph., and Rubini’s Camphor have also been recommended.
ACCESSORY MEANS. – The horizontal posture should be enjoined; and small quantities of arrowroot, beef-tea, or such light diet taken as best agrees with the patient. Champagne-iced if possible-is the best beverage, if it suits the stomach. Soda- water with a small quantity of brandy often suits well. When the symptoms are subsiding and the appetite is returning, a cup of good coffee without milk or sugar, with a plain biscuit or a small slice of toast, is often grateful.
PREVENTION. – For several days before embarking, indigestible food, over-repletion, or any irregularity in diet, should be avoided. At the same time one of the preventive remedies may be taken. Dr. Marsden informs the author that he has found those medicines most efficacious which, taken a day or two before going on board, improve the digestion. During the early part of the voyage, unless the weather be very fine, the patient should remain in his berth in a horizontal posture, and take chiefly liquid food – beef-tea, chicken-broth, etc. Good draughts of warm water, in the author’s experience, more often relieve than anything else. A girdle, moderately tight, round the waist and abdomen, or a stomach compress, without mackintosh, have also been recommended. Warmth to the stomach and feet tends very much to prevent sea-sickness. Anything to amuse, and divert the attention is useful.
158. – Mucous Colitis and Enteritis.
A chronic inflammation of the large intestine (colon) with much mucus secretion, is a condition known as Mucous Colitis, and is often very obstinate. It is generally demands expert treatment, but Hydrastis, Colchicum, Mercurius, and Arsenicum may be found useful.
Enteritis, or inflammation of the small intestine, occurs generally in young children, and takes the form of violent diarrhoea, often with grave symptoms of fever or collapse. It is most common in the hot weather. For treatment see Section on Diarrhoea.
159. – Dysentery.
DEFINITION. – A febrile disease, consisting of inflammation and Ulceration of the large intestine, with tenesmus, and scanty mucous or bloody stools.
SYMPTOMS. – These vary considerably with the type of the disease. Simple cases occur, and run their course, with little constitutional disturbance; but an acute attack commences with a chill or rigor, and is soon followed by quick pulse, hot skin, flushed face, and often pain in the head, thirst, furred tongue, nausea, and vomiting. Griping, irregular pains in the abdomen – tormina – are experienced, and the patient is often tormented by a sensation as if there were some excrementious matter in the bowel ready to be evacuated, and he is irresistibly impelled to strain violently to remove the irritation. This, the most marked symptom of Dysentery, is called tenesmus, and although the desire to go to stool is frequent and urgent, the patient is unable to pass anything except a little mucus and blood, shreds of fibrin, which the patient often thinks to be the coats of his own bowels, and sometimes, balls of hardened faeces, called scybalae. The spasmodic action often extends to the bladder, exciting frequent efforts to pass water. In hot climates the attacks are acute and violent, the pain being very severe around the navel and at the bottom of the backbone; sometimes Haemorrhage occurs from an artery being opened by Ulceration, or Abscess of the liver is a sequel of disease. (See Chapter on Tropical Diseases.) In unfavourable cases, loss of strength and flesh follow, small and rapid pulse, anxious and depressed countenance, the abdomen becomes increasingly tympanitic, with bearing down of the lower bowel, burning heat, hiccough, sudden cessation of pain, cold sweats, sharpened features, Delirium and Death. In favourable cases the strength is not much reduced, while warmth and moisture of the skin, and a more natural character of the evacuations, indicate a tendency to recovery.
CAUSES. – The cause is due either to a parasitic amoeba (Tropical Dysentery), or to certain specific bacilli. For the latter vaccine therapy is often useful.
The following may act as accessory and predisposing causes – Exposure to extreme and sudden changes of temperature, as from heat of day to the cold and damp of night; impure water; insufficient protection from cold and wet, as sleeping on the ground with the abdomen insufficiently covered; intemperance; a poor or irregular diet, etc. It is therefore often epidemic among people reduced by privation.
TREATMENT. – Aconitum.-If febrile symptoms are well marked, the early use of this remedy often arrests the disease at its onset. It should be administered several times, at intervals of an hour.
Mercurius-Cor.-Bloody evacuations, mucus mixed with blood, or almost pure blood; severe pain and straining before, and especially after, discharge; urine completely suppressed, or passed with great difficulty, with severe tenesmus of the bladder, while yet the patient lies perfectly quiet and composed.
Aloes. – Shooting boring pains near the navel, increased by pressure; swelling of the lower part of the abdomen, which is sensitive to pressure; distension in the left side and along the track of the colon, worse after eating; fainting during stools; stools of bloody water; violent tenesmus; frequent cutting pains with pinching in rectum and loins; heaviness and numbness in the thighs.
Arsenicum. – Great thirst, but patient drinks little at a time; cold breath; tongue looks blue; perspiration sticky and cold; eruptions may appear on the skin; cold extremities; excessive weakness; patient despairs of life, and is very restless; before stool, feeling as if the abdomen would burst; during stool, feeling of contraction above the anus; after stool, burning in rectum, trembling in limbs, also palpitation of the heart and exhaustion; putrid faeces; urine offensive, greenish, and passed with great pain. Especially indicated in constitutions enfeebled by previous disease.
Colocynth. – Often required after Mercurius-Cor., especially when colicky pains are very severe, the abdomen distended, tongue white, and discharges slimy; the patient is doubled up with pain, pressing any object against the abdomen for relief; fruitless attempts to vomit; burning along the sacral region.
Ipecacuanha. – Autumnal Dysentery, with nausea and vomiting, uneasiness, straining and Colic; the evacuations are frothy, foetid, and afterwards bloody, sometimes mucous and greenish. Often advantageous in alternation with Bryonia Emetine the alkaloid of Ipecac. is almost specific for amoebic dysentery and its sequels.
Bryonia. – Pains aggravated by the least movement even of the arms; great thirst for large draughts of water.
Belladonna. – At an early stage, if the pains appear and disappear suddenly; sharp, shooting pains; great bearing down; tenderness of abdomen to pressure.
Nux Vom. – The first to be given after allopathic drugging; special symptoms are small and frequent evacuations, with violent tenesmus, which cease with the evacuation; pain in the back, as if it were broken in the region of the sacrum.
China. – Dysentery in marshy districts; intermittent Dysentery; weak, thready pulse; cold extremities.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."