The same physician used hellebore as a purgative on the daughters of King Proteus, who were labouring under hypochondriasis or melancholy.

Purgative medicines ought at all times to be exhibited with caution to an infant, for so delicate and susceptible is the structure of its alimentary canal, that disease is but too frequently caused by that which was resorted to in the first instance as a remedy.

One of the greatest errors of the nursery is the too frequent and indiscriminate exhibition by the mother or nurse of purgative medicine to the infant.

The choice of the aperient, or the dose, or the exact condition of the health of the infant, or whether it is an aperient at all that is required, are points entirely overlooked: a little medicine is thought necessary, because the child appears unwell, and a purgative, or a little white powder, is forthwith given.

Then, the only purgative medicines that can be given with safely to an infant, without medical sanction, are, castor oil, manna, rhubarb, and magnesia; the application of the lavement, and the aperient liniment.

Then, again, no purgative can be so much relied on for overcoming habitual costiveness as castor oil; it may for this purpose be given daily for some weeks, gradually reducing the dose until only a few drops be taken; after which the bowels generally continue to act without further artificial assistance.

Rhubarb, it should always be recollected, has an astringent as well as purgative property, according to the extent of the dose in which it is administered; the former of which never opposes or interferes with the energy of the latter, since it only takes effect when the substance is administered in small doses, or, if given in larger ones, not until it has ceased to operate as a cathartic.

As a purgative it operates mildly, and may be given to the youngest infant; if from two to twelve months old, from three to six grains; for children above that age, the dose may range from ten grains to twenty.

This, however, is not the case with all kinds of purgative medicine, nor does the same purgative produce a like effect upon all children.

This, however, is not the case with all kinds of purgative medicine, nor does the same purgative produce a like effect upon all children.

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 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.

If therefore they become accidentally confined (less than two stools in the four-and-twenty hours), and the infant is suckled, the mother may ascertain whether an aperient taken by herself will render her milk of a sufficiently purgative quality to act upon the bowels of her child.

And at the present day it is not at all an uncommon occurrence for medical men to be called in to prescribe for children, to whom the strongest purgative quack medicines have been previously exhibited by parents, for the removal of symptoms which, upon investigation, are found in no way connected with or produced by worms.

Purgative medicine, 97.

Sir Thomas Brown was not prepared to contradict it: he says, that "Lapis Lasuli hath in it a purgative faculty, we know: that Bezoar is antidotal, Lapis Judaicus diuretical, Coral antipileptical, we will not deny.""Vulgar Errors," edit.

[4104]"Whosoever takes much physic in his youth, shall soon bewail it in his old age:" purgative physic especially, which doth much debilitate nature.

[4107]"that purgative physic is contrary to nature, takes away some of our best spirits, and consumes the very substance of our bodies:" But this, without question, is to be understood of such purges as are unseasonably or immoderately taken: they have their excellent use in this, as well as most other infirmities.

Simples are alterative or purgative.

This first stage on the upward path is the purgative life, which includes all the civic and social virtues, gained through general purification, self-discipline, and balance, with, at the same time, a gradual attainment of detachment from the things of sense, and a desire for the things of the spirit.

He leaves us a full account of his purgative stage.

Certainly the fires are often interpreted in the latter way by the persons who light them; and this purgative use of the element comes out very prominently, as we have seen, in the general expulsion of demons from towns and villages.

" ELATERIUM, a drug obtained from the mucus of the fruit of the squirting cucumber; is a most powerful purgative, and was known to the ancients.

Of this, half a measure is taken in the morning fasting, and repeated in the evening; and the dose is gradually increased till its purgative effects become too violent, when the decoction is to be intermitted for a day or two, and then renewed till a perfect cure is effected.

Simon Paulli relates some instances of the good effects of this purgative in dropsies: but cautions practitioners not to have recourse to it till after milder medicines have proved ineffectual; to which caution we heartily subscribe.