[FN#19] This may be made up and kept in the nursery for a long time
without spoiling.
Rhubarb, mixed with flour and warm water, may be made into a poultice,
and applied to the abdomen of a child that obstinately refuses to
swallow medicine, and it will be found to produce the same effect as if
the medicine had been taken into the stomach; it will purge briskly.
THE LAVEMENT.
This is an excellent nursery remedy when the bowels are obstinately
costive. It may then be employed as a substitute for medicine, a
protracted and frequent use of which (even of the mildest aperients) is
apt to injure the digestive functions, and to give rise to some degree
of intestinal irritation. Lavements, however, like aperient medicine,
must not be resorted to for a long time together; for whilst the latter
irritate, the former most certainly tend, after a long continued use,
to debilitate the bowels, and thus render them less than ever disposed
to act for themselves. They are an excellent occasional remedy.
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.
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