Colic Pills.
Take Pills e duobus half a dram, Calomet half a scruple; Oil of Amber 2 drops; London Laudanum 2 grains; Diacodium as much as useful to make 5 Pills.
All Purging (and even Glysters) are found hurtful in an Hysteric Colic. But in a Bilious Colic, when a cruel Pain is fixt in one Place (especially the Ventricle and upper Intestines,) and the Belly is absolutely shut up, and no Glyster may be injected, beacuse of the Spasms drawing up the Intestines. Then these Pills come in, as a seasonable aid, for they first appease the Pain and dissolve the Spasm, and after strongly stimulate and turn downwards the Peristaltic Motion, and exterminate the Morbose Matter.
But if it chance (as it often doth) that they fail of their Business the first time, then use Carminative Fomentations, and repeat the Pills again, that the Operation may follow, for as soon as ever they make their way through the Instestines (and not before) the Spasm, together with the main of the Distemper, is broken and goes off.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710