During the period between dentition and puberty, the diseases attendant on a lax fibre still continue, though not so predominantly as in the former stage; yet acescency is the manifest cause, or at least the concomitant of many of the complaints to which children are at this time liable. To this they are disposed, notwithstanding the change in their diet to a more alkalescent kind, by the great quantities of fruit, frequently crude and unripe, cakes, and other sweet and greasy food with which they are too often indulged. By these errors their bowels are overcharged, their digestion impaired, and the aliment remaining too long in the stomach becomes sour, and occasions vomitings, head achs, and other complaints which are often thought to proceed from worms, and indeed are frequently attended with that disorder; as the crudities thus generated in the bowels serve as a nidus for these destructive vermin. Here likewise Magnesia may be of considerable advantage as an alkaline purgative, neutralizing the offending acid, and at the same time promoting its discharge by stool. But if the stomach be overloaded with mucus or undigested aliment, a gentle vomit ought to precede the exhibition of the Magnesia. And even in a more advanced stage of life, persons of weak habits, and who lead sedentary lives, are often afflicted with indigestion, sour eructations, heart-burn, vomitings, and costiveness. These disorders very frequently attend women during their state of pregnancy, and are sometimes almost instantly removed by the use of Magnesia. Dr. Watson[m] has published the case of a pregnant woman, who was afflicted with such severe vomitings as to bring on convulsions, hiccoughing, and violent pain at her stomach. What she brought up was acid, and so very acrimonious, as to inflame and excoriate her mouth and throat; and the great uneasiness she felt at her stomach upon swallowing any liquor that had the least degree of acrimony, or was more than lukewarm, made it probable that the internal surface of the stomach was affected in the same manner. In this desperate situation, after a variety of remedies had been tried in vain, the stomach was washed with unsalted mutton broth, till the liquor was discharged without any acid taste. Her pain was by this means abated, but in about two hours was apparently returning with the same violence as before. This ingenious Physician then directed a drachm of Magnesia to be given in mutton broth, and to be repeated as often as her pain returned, without any regard to the quantity the whole might amount to, supposing her pain to continue severe. The first dose relieved her, and in three days she took three ounces of Magnesia; and in the next three days, two ounces more, by which time all her symptoms were removed. It is remarkable in this case that a hypercatharsis was not the consequence of taking so large a quantity of Magnesia, where there was so much acid to neutralize it.