y, sometimes mixed with
blood, bile, or ingesta.

The symptoms of the affection are usually at first those of indigestion,
a fullness of the stomach, flatulency, and colicky pains. The pains,
which precede each evacuation, are intermittent in character. There may
be an unpleasant sinking sensation in the abdomen, and, with the
discharge, exhaustion, a feeble pulse, and a cool skin. In the
inflammatory variety, there is more or less fever.

CHOLERA INFANTUM, or summer complaint, is a disease peculiar to the warm
season, and more prevalent in cities, and among those children who do
not nurse at the breast. It is characterized by great irritability of
the stomach, and persistent vomiting and purging, the discharges from
the bowels being copious and watery, and sometimes containing specks of
curd, yellowish-green matter, and mucus. The limbs of the little
sufferer are usually drawn up, indicating pain in the bowels, and there
is great prostration with cold extremities. The invasion may be so
sudden, and the disease so violent as to destroy life in a few hours.

DYSENTERY, also known as _bloody-flux,_ consists of an inflammation of
the mucous membrane of the large intestine, with ulceration of the
affected surfaces. The disease is accompanied with much nervous
prostration, and is distinguished by severe pains in the abdomen of a
griping nature, followed by frequent scanty and bloody stools, and much
straining. Occasionally the attack is ushered in with a chill and aching
pains in various parts of the body, with copious fecal dejections. In
other cases the attack is preceded by loss of appetite, a sense of
uneasiness with dull pains in the abdomen, and weariness. The disease,
like diarrhea, may be either acute or chronic.

THE CAUSES of these affections of the bowels are many and varied. They
may be brought on by exposure to cold and wet, or by improper and
indigestible articles of food, such as unripe fruits, salads, pastries,
and, in fact, anything which interferes with the normal operations of
the digestive apparatus. One of the most fertile sources of diarrhea in
infants, and of _cholera infantum_, is the administration of unsuitable
food, the ill effects of which are greatly increased by exposure to heat
or cold. Uncleanliness, and the inhalation of impure air, are prolific
causes Of these diseases. Epidemics have been supposed to be due to some
peculiarity in the condition of the atmosphere, or to some impalpable
ge