There is a common form of this disorder, which appears very often in hot weather without any other indication, and which if neglected will lead to fully-developed cholera, if that disease or its causes be at the time prevalent; while, on the other hand, it is easily arrested if taken in time.

Treatment

For an ordinary attack of diarrhoea - not arising from any known cause, such as irregularity of diet - a dose of the common chalk mixture (one ounce) with a drachm of tincture of catechu, repeated every three or four hours, will generally prove sufficient. If otherwise, three or four drops of creasote mixed with a teaspoonful of spirits of salvolatile in a wineglass of water, will check it.

If the diarrhoea be profuse, and attended with much pain, a single dose of one grain of opium (taken as a pill) will often be sufficient for the purpose of relieving pain and arresting the complaint. This dose is for an adult only.

Diarrhoea occurring in infants and young children is best controlled by one or two teaspoonsfuls of chalk mixture, given after each loose purge.

If it prove obstinate, the following will most probably be efficacious: -

Take a few chips of logwood, and boil for half an hour in half a pint of water. Mix two ounces of this decoction with half a drachm of powdered alum, and enough powdered sugar to sweeten it, and give a teaspoonful after each action of the bowels.