SPRUE, OR PSILOSIS.
In this obstinate catarrhal condition, which affects the entire intestinal tract of Europeans residing in hot climates, drugs are of little value.
The best routine treatment, as determined by experience, is a pure milk diet, the fluid being administered in wineglassful doses every hour, as in the treatment of gastric and intestinal ulceration, care being taken that the patient at first never gets the opportunity of drinking as large an amount as will satisfy his hunger by filling the stomach with the liquid.
Another method of treatment sometimes successful is a diet of raw or slightly-( ooked meat pulp, beef juice, beef jelly, and calves'-foot jelly.
By alternating the milk and beef dietaries every 14 to 21 days better results may be obtained than by either method separately.
Fresh fruit treatment has many advocates, and when fresh strawberries are procurable all authorities recommend their administration in full amounts. Grapes and ripe pears or even bananas or gooseberries may likewise be given.
Constipation must be avoided after the diarrhoea has been checked, and for this purpose nothing is so safe and satisfactory as small doses of Castor Oil after the operation of a simple warm-water enema. The
Castor Oil often relieves the diarrhoea without a preliminary increase of purgation.
The ulceration of the mouth should be met by frequently smearing the tongue with Glycerin of Borax, to which a little Carbolic Acid or Cocaine has been added, or tabloids containing Borax, Cocaine, and Chlorate of Potash may be slowly sucked in the mouth.
The pathology of the affection still awaits solution. Ashford believes it is due to a monilia ingested in the bread; those who believe in a parasitic origin administer Ipecacuanha as in the treatment of dysentery or give Yellow Santonin in 3-gr. doses in Castor Oil. Intestinal antiseptics, as Salol and /3-Naphthol, are extolled; the best of these, according to the reports of Hartigan, is Cyllin—a phenol derivative—which may be given in 3 to 5 min. capsules several times a day. Ordinary vegetable astrin gents and opium are of little value; perhaps the best routine remedy for controlling excessive diarrhea is Gelatin made into a stiff jelly, which may be taken ad lib.