HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1645, 2 June 1883, Page 28

HEALTH COLUMN.

By F. A. J. De Conde.

XXVI. Colic, though not generally a dangerous complaint, is yet a very painful one, especially in infancy. The complaint is better known as spasm of the bowels, gripes, or stomachache. Persons of a nervous temperament are always more subject to it than v those of an opposite disposition. Excessive mental work and excitement are fruitful causes of colic, but indigestible food is the most frequent cause. THb painful complaint seems to be the peculiar heritage of infancy, but in most cases it is the outcome of mismanagement. Some careless exposure to cold, or foolishly exposing the legs and arms of the child, brings on a severe attack. Cold and irritating food are then the two chief causes of colic, therefore it is necessary to exercise care on these points if you wish to avoid this painful complaint. Getting the feet wet is often sufficient to bring on an attack in those predisposed to it. The griping pain is due to the bowels being distended by gases generated from undigested food. The food undergoes fermentation rather than digestion, and of course a deal of gas is generated. Thia gas confined within the bowels distends them unduly and gives rise to the pain. The gas shifts to a different part of the bowel, and the pain accompanies it. _ What is called painter's colic is caused by lead getting into the system, and workers in copper often suffer from a similar complaint. Lead colic and copper colic require special treatment. Usually colic is accompanied by constipation, and when a dose of purging medicine operates relief is obtained. Sometimes, however, the medicine fails to give relief. In any case you have to wait some considerable time before you can expect to get relief by purgatives. It is better, therefore, to try other means first, and when these fail purgatives may be tried. Some heating stimulant is the best thing, and cayenne pepper i 3 the best of these. It is of course too strong to give to an infant,, but a child could take it if given in the form of pills. Mix some of the pepper with an equal quantity of flour, using just sufficient water to moisten the mixture ; then mould into pills with your fingers. These may be given in a little jam or treacle, or swallowed along with water in the usual way. You could use from three to a dozen of these pills at a dose according to circumstances, and take a dose every hour or so for a few hours. Cayenne is a perfectly safe remedy, and one which never leaves any bad after effects. In colic the pulse is always lowered, as well as the temperature of the body, and cayenne is one of the best heating stimulants. If you can drink a teaspoonful of infused cayenne in hot water, the effect is more pronounced, but the liquid is so fiery that most people are almost choked with it. Therefore the pills are better, and you should take a hot drink of some kind after them. An enema, or injection, of warm water often gives speedy relief, especially in children. If the attack be severe and prolonged, inflammation of the bowels is likely to supervene. In severe cases, warm poultices or fomentations are necessary, and in any case give relief. A good warm bath will often cure a baby like magic. Those who see a little sufferer in cruel pain, should try this plan, and they are sure to be rewarded by seeing that the pain is removed. Purging drugs should only be the last resource, as the bowels can always be relieved by an enema of warm water and castor oil. In severe cases it might be as well to take some aperient meditine after the attack is over.

Inflammation of the bowels is jußt an aggravated form of colic, but a much more dangerous form. Active purging medicines are always the first resort of medical men, and if the medicines act they no doubt help. But in most cases purgatives will not act, unless given at the very commencement of the attack. If the medicine fails it only adds to the mischief, stronger doses are then tried, and often with no better result than the former ; on the other hand the sufferer is made a great deal worsw. The last case of inflammation of tho boweln which came under my notice was treated at, above by. the doctor, only that leeches were applied to the stomach additionally. What end or purpose the leeches fulfilled I cannot divine. The purgatives did not act ; tho leeches did no good, and tho patient died after a few hours of indescribable agony. Yet thia is the common practice of the faculty. Frequent doses of cayenne, along with hot

poultices and enemas of cayenne would give relief sooner than all the purgatives in a chemist's shop. Active stimulation of the bowels is what is required. x\lost likely the patient is fevered very much— too hot already, you might think, without heating remedies. But cold is likely the primary cause of the disease, and hoat is necessary to drive it out. If this treatment were adopted more generally, valuable lives might be saved, while under the usual treatment death is almost inevitable. Nothing will stop the violent vomiting which usually accompanies inflammation of the bowels sooner than cayenne. Intense thirst is ene of the prominent symptoms of this disease, and nothing is relished by the patient like a drink of cold water. Nature is generally the best guido, and what is most craved for is likely to be just what the disease requires. Then give water freely, a little at a time and often. A large draught would be too sudden a chill to the stomach. Hot poultices are your sheet anchor — and as hot as can be borne. Remove the poultices frequently, and thus keep up a good beat. As soon as the severity of the attack lessens a less heroic treatment will do. At first, a half teaspoonful of the pepper infused in hot water should be given every half hour till three doH69 have been taken. Then the same quantity may be given hourly for three more doses. The pepper may then be discontinued for a few hours. After the attack becomes less severe, a dose of cayenne should be taken every three or four hours till all pain ceases; and the poultices should be kept up the same time. Aperient medicine should not be given till the violent pain has disappeared, and not for an hour or two after would be the safer way. The diet must be carefully regulated till the patient is convalescent. Milk and lime-water is perhaps the safest food quite at first. Beef tea or a little broth and bread crumbs may be given in the course of a day or two, but butcher meat must not be eaten till the pain has quite disappeared. An attack of inflammation always leaves the bowels weak, so that great care must be taken ever afterwards, both to avoid cold, and anything that is liable to cause colic.