Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/104

 care, relief can generally be quickly obtained. If the evacuations—instead of being stool—are merely blood and slime, and the child strain frequently and violently, endeavoring thus, but in vain, to relieve himself, crying at each effort, the case assumes the character of dysentery. See Symptoms and Treatment of Dysentery.

If there be a mixture of blood, slime, and stool from the bowels, the case would be called dysenteric diarrhœa. This latter case requires great skill and judgment on the part of a medical man, and great attention and implicit obedience from the mother and the nurse. I merely mention these diseases in order to warn you of their importance, and of the necessity of strictly attending to a doctor's orders.

101. What are the causes of diarrhœa—"Looseness of the bowels?"

Improper food; over-feeding; teething; cold; the mother's milk from various causes disagreeing, namely, from her being out of health, from her eating usuitable food, from her taking improper and drastic purgatives, or from her suckling her child when she is pregnant. Of course, if any of these causes are in operation, they ought, if possible, to be remedied, or medicine to the babe will be of little avail.

102. What is the treatment of Diarrhœa?

What to do.—If the case be slight, and has lasted two or three days (do not interfere by giving medicine at first), and if the cause, as it probably is, be some acidity or vitiated stool that wants a vent, and thus endeavors to obtain one by purging, the best treatment is to assist nature by giving either a dose of castor oil or a moderate one of rhubarb and magnesia, and thus to work off the enemy. For a rhubarb and magnesia mixture prescription, see question 98.

After the enemy has been worked off, either by the