A seeming cure may also be effected by quinine, but it really brings other diseases in its train. Even in malarial fever, in which quinine is supposed to be most effective, I have rarely seen it bring permanent relief; on the other hand, I have actually seen several cases of malarial patients [Pg 101] being permanently cured by the treatment described above. Many people subsist on milk alone during fever, but my experience is that it really does harm in the initial stages, as it is hard to digest. If milk has to be given, it is best given in the form of “wheat-coffee”, 1 or with a small quantity of rice-flour well boiled in water; but in extreme forms of fever, it ought not to be given at all. In such a condition, the juice of lime may always be given with great success. As soon as the tongue gets clean, plantain may be included in the diet, and given in the form described above. If there be constipation, a hot-water enema with borax should be applied in preference to purgatives, after which a diet of olive oil will serve to keep the bowels free. 1 Part I, chap. V Chapter V CONSTIPATION, DYSENTERY, GRIPES AND PILES It may at first sight appear strange to have four different ailments put together in this chapter, but, as a matter of fact, they are all so closely connected, and may be cured more or less in the same way. When the stomach gets clogged by undigested matter, it leads to one or other of these [Pg 102] diseases, according to the varying constitutions of individuals. In some it produces constipation. The bowels do not move, or move only partly, and there is great straining at stools, until it results in bleeding, or at times in the discharge of mucus, or piles. In others, it leads to diarrhea, which often ends in dysentery. In others again, it may give rise to gripes, accompanied by pain in the stomach and the discharge of mucus.