Symptoms:
Severe abdominal pain and tenderness, rigidity of the abdominal muscles, fever, rapid pulse, sunken eyes, vomiting, and a pinched expression of the face.

Cause:
Peritonitis is serious and frequently fatal. Take the person to the hospital.

It is caused by blows, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, complication of a surgical operation, appendicitis, childbirth, or ovarian disease.

Less common is chronic peritonitis, also called tuberculosis peritonitis. This is tubercular in origin, and shows little pain or fever and few symptoms other than great emaciation, loss of strength, and fluid in the abdominal cavity.

Treatment:
• Use warm, whole, baths or warm, wet, packs over the abdomen. A castor oil pack is also good.

• If there is pain, take a slippery elm retention enema every morning.

• Go on a 3-day carrot juice fast or a diet of oatmeal gruels, lentil and barley soup, and other potassium fruits and vegetables.

• During the inflammatory stage, avoid eating. Instead, drink as much slippery elm tea as possible, sipping it continually.

• Helpful herb teas include bryonia, pleurisy root, and aconite.

• Once past the critical stage, drink comfrey root tea every 3-4 hours, along with echinacea tablets.

• If the condition is tuberculosis peritonitis, the patient should be treated as for tuberculosis (which see).