6.  Vomiting, to Produce, Warm Water for.—­“Drink a quart of warm water and you will easily find relief at once.”  The warm water remedy is very good as the water helps the patient by removing all decomposed food.

Physicians’ treatment for Vomiting.—­The only way to treat it is to treat the disease that causes it.  Here I may mention a very simple remedy; a tea made from wood soot is frequently helpful.  It is the creosote in the wood soot that gives it its medical virtue.

2.  For nervous vomiting; two to five drops of garlic juice is good.  Dose of syrup for a child [is] one teaspoonful.  Dose of syrup for an adult is four teaspoonfuls.

[116 Mothers’ remedies]

3.  A little brandy on cracked ice is often good.

4.  Oil of cloves, one-half to one drop, helps in some cases.

5.  Lime water added to milk is good in babies.

6.  Vinegar fumes, saturate a cloth and inhale the fumes.

7.  Seidlitz powder often settles the stomach, soda also.

8.  Mustard plaster over the stomach is good in all cases.

9.  One-tenth of a drop of ipecac is good for nausea and vomiting.

10.  One-half of a drop of Fowler’s solution every two hours is useful in nausea following a spree.  So also one drop dose of nux vomica every half hour.

Appendicitis.—­Inflammation of the vermiform appendix is the most important of acute bowel troubles.  Sometimes the appendix may contain a mould of feces, which can be squeezed out readily.  Sometimes foreign bodies like pins are found there; in about seven per cent of cases foreign bodies are found.

It is a disease of young persons.  Fifty per cent occur before the twentieth year.  It is most common in males.  Persons who do heavy lifting are quite subject to the disease.  Some cases follow falls or blows.  Indiscretions of diet are very apt to bring on an attack, particularly in those who have had it before.  Pain in the appendix in such persons, frequently follows the eating of food hard to digest.  Gorging with peanuts is also a cause.

Symptoms.—­In a large proportion of cases the following symptoms are present:—­Sudden pain in the abdomen, usually referred to the right groin region.  Fever often of moderate form or grade.  Disturbances of the stomach and bowels, such as nausea, vomiting and frequently constipation.  Tenderness or pain in the appendix region.  The pain in fully one-half of the cases is localized in right lower part of the abdomen, but it may be in the central portion, scattered, or in any part of the abdomen.  Even when the pain is not in the region of the appendix at first, it is usually felt there within thirty-six or forty-eight hours.  It is sometimes very sharp and colic-like; sometimes it is dull.  The fever follows rapidly upon the pain.  It may range from 100 to 102 and higher.  The tongue is coated and moist usually,—­seldom dry.  Nausea and vomiting are commonly present.  It rarely persists longer than the second day in favorable cases.  Constipation is the rule, but the attack may start with diarrhea.