astringent medicines may be administered to restore the habit in a much shorter time.
I have made use of the bark, elixir vitriol, brandy, &c. for bracers, after electrification; but sometimes opium answers a better intention.
The gentle dysentery, white or green purgings in children, are immediately relieved by the gentle shock; it always regulates the digestion.
I have given ten or twelve shocks, in this disease, to a child of four weeks old; and that single electrification restored the child to health.
In the epidemic at Galway, I would not use any thing but the shocks, until I substantiated their infallibility, and made it evident to many people,
that they were a sure restorative, without any assisting mean whatever.
But that I may do justice in every page, and to every subject, it is necessary to observe, that none of these
cases were very far advanced; they were mostly recent ones; the patients were all able to go or be carried abroad.
If costiveness preceded the disease, a cathartic should be given; for the shocks are not laxative, in the sense of a cathartic, but only a propellant of laxative contents;
and that by springing the intestines, the blood secreted in the intestines will be discharged,
and a further effusion upon the intestines will be restrained; but without a purge, costiveness may remain, to the detriment of the patient.
There may be a combination of complaints, in this or any other of the diseases I have mentioned, to be treated by electricity, which may make it necessary to
vary the manner of treatment by electricity; to conjoin different assisting medicines, 7c. &c. all of which, must be left to the
observation and judgment of the electrician, physician, &c.
The strangury, that so often accompanies the vehement dysentery, is always removed by passing a few light shocks down the urinary passages.
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