SPRUE TREATED BY EMETINE.

To the Editor of "The Indian Medical Gazette."

SIR,?May I crave the hospitality of a little space in the column of your esteemed paper for the insertion of the

following: notes ? A dhobi woman, aged 30, had been suffering from sprue

for 9 months. She was treated at Delhi and some other

places, but without any success. Having some relation with a family in our camp, she was brought to me for treatment. Her condition on examination was as follows. She was thin and anaemic with a sallow complexion, had all the charac- teristic symptoms of sprue, that is, diarrhoea, mouth affection, and dyspeptic trouble. These symptomsjwere some- times quiescent and sometimes exacerbated. Stools were

loose, copious, pale, and offensive with a considerable amount of oily matter in them. A few amosba coli were seen under the microscope.

Oct., 1917.] CORRESPONDENCE. 379

She is a mother of six children, and this trouble began after the birth of her sixth child. I commenced the treat- ment by administering a good dose of castor oil and by ordering complete rest and milk diet only. At first slie was given 60 ozs. of milk in 24 hours. On the third day, a m irked improvement in her condition became visible : dispeptic distension of the abdomen disappeared, mouth trouble was greatly improved, and consistency of stools was increased and their number was reduced to two. The quantity of milk was now increased to 100 ozs., and then gradually to 7 pints. The patient was given nothing in the way of drink and food but milk for 6 weeks, according to the advice of Sir P. Manson in his book. She was free from all symptoms and the stools had become solid. But when an attempt to put her on other diet was made, the symptoms showed signs of relapse. She was again put back to bed and placed on milk diet once more, with the result that once again she fell quite all right. A second attempt, however, to place her on another diet brought the former symptoms back again which induced me to try some other method of treatment. This time I began by injecting half a grain of emetine daily for a week and met with considerable success. The woman recovered completely and is 0nce again taking ordinary diet without any relapse of her old troubles, and is getting stout.

Vours etc.. MUSHARRAF ALI, L.c.P. & s. (Bomb.)

Government House, NaINI i'AL,

'Jlst August, law.