Unfortunately the general resource and only remedy of most mothers in
affections of the stomach and bowels is an aperient, and a combination
containing calomel is the one too frequently selected. The primary
cause of the disorder is undetected, and consequently no measures taken
for its removal, but purgative powder after purgative powder is given,
the evil being supposed to rest in the bowels alone, and that such
means must eventually get rid of it. The mother is not aware all this
time that the real source of the derangement is probably in the diet
itself; that there is some error here, and that unless this is
corrected, the remedies must be worse than useless. The consequence of
such a plan of proceeding is usually very sad; a confirmed and
obstinate diarrhoea but too commonly ensues, and the infant is
sometimes reduced to the last extremity.
The removal of the cause of the disorder, then, in a large number of
instances of derangement of the stomach and bowels, if effected early,
will cure the disease, and without further remedy. But it will be
asked, by what method is this cause to be detected? In this way. In all
human probability the primary cause of the disorder is connected with
the diet; this is the case in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred.
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