Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/216

204 drastic mineral acids, putrefactive and zymotic poisons, noxious gases, etc. Rest and warm bandages are the best remedies. The antidotes of corrosive poisons will be named in a separate chapter. The pains of gastric spasms, as a consequence of dietetic sins, may be alleviated by manipulation and friction with a moist piece of flannel; in extreme cases, indicating the presence of virulent acids, by means of a stomach-pump. Generally a semi-horizontal position, reclining on the left side, with the upper part of the body slightly raised, together with local friction, will considerably ease the distressed organ, though intermittent griping pangs may continue till the alchemy of the physiological workshop has neutralized the irritating substance. From a kindred affection colic can be distinguished by a simple test: if pressure against the upper part of the groin increases the pain, the complaint is an inflammation of the peritonæum, but otherwise due to the presence of acid fluids or expansive gases. Painter's colic may be recognized by the discoloration of the gums and lips, and can be cured only by the removal of the cause. A napkin, sprinkled with aromatic vinegar, and tied loosely across the nostrils, will, however, lessen the effect of the noxious effluvia; and the Italians recommend the internal use of olive-oil (cotton-seed oil would probably serve the same purpose) and wine. For a few days after a severe attack of colic, pure water should be the only drink.

Flatulence tends to obviate the proximate cause of intestinal cramps. As a concomitant of dyspepsia, it indicates the accumulation of undigested food and the necessity of greater abstemiousness. Burnt magnesia absorbs gastric acids, but at the same time impairs the functional vigor of the stomach too often to be, on the whole, a lesser evil. It is, however, one of the very few chemical remedies which act, temporarily at least, by a direct removal of the proximate cause. Its permanent removal can be effected only by a change of regimen.

In the treatment of hæmorrhoids, too, we have to distinguish between palliatives and radical remedies. If the statistics of the complaint could be tabulated, I believe it would be found that its centers of distribution coincide with a prevalence of sedentary occupations, combined with the use of narcotic drinks, especially coffee. Monkeys have posterior callosities, and their habits prove that an occasional sitting posture is normal to the primates of the animal kingdom. But, in a state of nature at least, our arboreal relatives are too restless to avail themselves of their sitting facilities oftener than five or six times a day—for about a minute at a time. In menageries they become sedate enough for ten-minutes sessions. But a German chancery-clerk has to sit fifteen hours a day, awaiting promotion and the supper-hour, for he is often required to eat his dinner in situ. If his dinner-basket is sent from a cheap boarding-house, it is sure to contain a selection of highly astringent comestibles—tough beef, leathery potato-chips, allspice, ginger-cakes, and pickles. The accompanying flask contains