Dill water, two ounces;

Simple syrup, two drachms.

[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.  The proportions of fluid which are necessary for the different stages of life, under ordinary circumstances, maybe stated as follows:—­An infant at its birth requires about one fluid ounce; a child between the age of one and five years, from three to four fluid ounces; and a youth of ten or fifteen, from six to eight fluid ounces.

The mode of administering an injection to an infant deserves particular attention, as injury might be caused by its being performed in a careless or unskilful manner.  A gum elastic pipe should be always used instead of the hard ivory tube.  Having smeared this over with lard, and placed the infant on its left side, with its knees bent up in the lap of the nurse, it is to be passed a couple of inches into the bowel, in a direction not parallel to the axis of the body, but rather inclined to the left.  The latter circumstance should never be neglected, for if not attended to, there will be difficulty in administering the injection.  The fluid must then be propelled very gradually, or it will be instantly rejected; on the whole being thrown up (the pipe carefully and slowly withdrawn), the child must be kept quietly reposing on its nurse’s lap, and in the same posture for some little time.

THE APERIENT LINIMENT.

A liniment to be rubbed on the stomach is another resource in cases of habitual costiveness, and will frequently be attended with great success when repeated purgatives have been resisted.