To relieve an attack, flush the colon thoroughly. Take a hot foot-bath, and while taking it, take a cup of hot lemonade--without sugar--so hot that you have to sip it.
In this disease the outlet to the intestinal canal has become clogged. The kidneys wear out trying to evacuate the bowels through their delicate tubular network and the capillaries have become helpless through misuse in trying to do the work of others. So the tissues and muscles of the extremities are loaded with this cast off material, and we call it bloat. This is dropsy.
Use the “Cascade” at least twice a week, making the flushings thorough and complete. In addition, I would earnestly recommend a daily application of the Turkish bath, to open up the pores of the skin and induce perspiration. If the patient is too weak to take the Turkish bath, the hot wet-sheet pack, the same as prescribed for Scarlet Fever, will accomplish the same purpose. The Turkish bath, however, is by far the best, for the system is loaded with too much water, for which the profuse perspiration induced by this dry sweating process affords marked relief.
With reference to diet, it is wise to eat as little as possible, and let that be of dry toast, thoroughly masticated. It is important that no tea or coffee should be taken.
This complaint was formerly known as inflammation of the bowels, and may be caused by injury. It was generally believed to be due to the presence of foreign substances, such as grape seeds, etc., in the vermiform appendix, but this idea is exploded. It is an inflamed condition of the appendix, but the inflammation may have extended from the colon or from the peritoneum. The most frequent cause is the cæcum (the lower pouch of the colon) getting filled with hardened fæcal matter, in which case the ileo cæcal valve is obstructed, and the natural passages of the bowels stopped. With a clean colon appendicitis is practically an impossibility.
The accepted medical practice is to remove the appendix by operation, regardless of conditions; but the mortality in such cases is high. Others put the patient to sleep with tincture of opium, or veratrum viride, and let Nature right herself, if possible. If Nature can maintain herself against the doctor and his drugs from seven to nine days, the patient may get round, but not well.