t fails, report the
fact to the physician when he makes his daily call; he will draw the urine
and it will be part of his daily duty to give specific instructions
regarding this function until nature reestablishes it.

No particular attention need be paid to the bowels for the first two days.
On the morning of the third day, if they have not acted of their own
accord, the physician will give the necessary instructions to move them.
The means necessary to accomplish the first movement after a confinement is
a matter of choice. The old-time idea was to use castor oil, and while
other remedies are now more or less fashionable, castor oil is still an
excellent agent. Enemas are frequently used, but their use is questionable
in this instance, inasmuch as a movement has not taken place for three
days, the object is to clean out the whole length of the intestinal tract,
and an enema is limited to part of the large intestine only,--according to
how it is given. If the small intestines are not thoroughly emptied, [107]
particles of food may remain there, and if so, they will putrify and the
patient runs the risk of developing gas,--sometimes to an enormous extent.
This affliction is painful, and dangerous, and nearly always unnecessary.
It is always, therefore, more safe, and more desirable, to use some agent
by the mouth, and we know of no better one than castor oil; and as castor
oil can be so masked as to be practically tasteless at any drug-store soda
fountain there can be small objection to it. My custom is to send the nurse
or husband with an empty glass to the drug store to have the mixture made
there and brought back ready for use. We have frequently obtained it in
this way and given it to the patient without her knowing what it was. The
best time to give castor oil is two hours after a meal, and two hours
before the next meal--i.e., on an empty stomach. It works quicker and does
not nauseate when the stomach is empty.

INSTRUCTING THE NURSE IN DETAILS.--The nurse will attend to the patient's
discharges by changing the napkins frequently. The bruised parts should be
washed twice daily, for the first three or four days. If the nurse is a
trained graduate nurse a few directions will suffice. If she is not a
trained nurse the physician should be explicit in his instructions. It
would be better if he actually showed her just how he wanted this work
done. The best way to cleanse the vulvae or privates is to take an ordinary