Olive or castor oil may be used for this purpose; they must be warmed
and rubbed over the abdomen night and morning, for five or ten minutes.
Perhaps the best form of liniment that can be made use of is the
following:--
Compound soap liniment, one ounce;
Compound tincture of aloes, half an ounce.
Sect. II.--CALOMEL.
Calomel is one of the most useful medicines we possess; but though
powerful for good, it is by no means powerless for mischief, and pages
might be written upon the evil effects which have resulted from its
indiscriminate use in the nursery; medical men are daily and hourly
witnessing this fact. It is particularly eligible in the diseases of
children; but then it is quite impossible for unprofessional persons to
judge when it may be appropriately exhibited. And it cannot be too
generally known, that the effect of this medicine upon the evacuations
is always to make them appear unnatural. From ignorance of this fact,
calomel is often repeated again and again to relieve that very
condition which it has itself produced, causing, but too frequently, a
degree of irritation in the delicate lining membrane of the bowel,
which it may be very difficult for a medical man to remove, and perhaps
a source of misery to the child as long as it lives.
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