|
DISLOCATIONS.—These injuries can mostly be easily recognized; 1. By the deformity that the dislocation gives rise to by comparing the alteration in shape with the other side of the body. 2. Loss of some of the regular movements of the joints. 3. In case of dislocation, surgical aid should be procured at once. While waiting the arrival of a physician, the injured portion should be placed in the position most comfortable to the patient, and frequent cold bathing or cloths wrung out of cold water, applied to the parts affected, so as to relieve suffering and prevent inflammation.
FOREIGN BODIES IN EARS.—Great care should be taken in removing foreign bodies from the ear, as serious injury may be inflicted. Most foreign bodies, especially those of small size, can be easily removed by the use of a syringe with warm water, and in most cases no other means should be used. Should the first efforts fail, repeat the operation. A syringe throwing a moderately small and continuous stream is the best adapted for the purpose, and the removal may generally be facilitated by inclining the ear downward while using the syringe. Severe inflammation may be excited, and serious injury done, by rash attempts to seize a foreign body in the ear, with a forceps or tweezers, or trying to pick it out with a pin or needle, or with an ear scoop. Should it be necessary from any cause to use instruments, great care should be observed, and but very little force exerted. It has lately been recommended, when foreign bodies cannot be removed by syringing the ear, to introduce a small brush or swab of frayed linen or muslin cloth, or a bit of sponge, moistened with a solution of glue, and keep it in contact with the foreign body until the glue adheres, when the body may be easily removed.
INSECTS IN THE EAR.—Insects in the ear may be easily killed by pouring oil in the ear, after which remove by syringing. (See foreign bodies in ear.)
TO REMOVE HARDENED EAR WAX.—Hardened ear wax may be softened by dropping into the ear some oil or glycerine, and then syringing. (See foreign bodies in ear.)
FOREIGN BODIES IN EYE.—To remove small particles from the eye, unless they have penetrated the globe, or become fixed in the conjunctiva, do as follows:
Grasp the upper lid between the thumb and forefinger, lift it from the eyeball, and having drawn it down as far as possible outside the lower lid, let it slide slowly back to its place, resting upon the lower lid as it goes back; and then wipe the edges of the lids with a soft handkerchief to remove the foreign substance. This may be repeated a number of times, if necessary, without injury. Should this means fail, evert the lids and remove the foreign substance, by touching it lightly with the fold of a handkerchief, or with the point of a roll of paper made like a candle-lighter; or, if necessary, with a small pair of forceps. A drop of sweet oil instilled in the eye, while perfectly harmless, provokes a flow of tears that will frequently wash away any light substance.
Bits of metal, sharp pieces of sand, etc. sometimes penetrate the globe of the eye, and, unless removed, may excite so much inflammation as to destroy the eye. They should he removed by a competent surgeon.
FAINTING.—Lay the person who has fainted in a current of air, or in
such a position that the air from an open window or door will have full play upon the face. Do not allow parties to crowd closely around, but give the sufferer plenty of room. Recovery will take place in a few minutes. The clothes also may be opened, and cold water sprinkled upon the face, hands and chest; and some pungent substance, as smelling salts, camphor, aromatic vinegar, etc., may be applied to the nostrils; and as soon as able to swallow, a little fresh water, or spirits and water, may be given. Persons who faint easily should avoid crowded rooms and places where the air is close.
FITS.—See Convulsions.
CLOTHING ON FIRE.—If a woman's clothes catch on fire, let her instantly roll herself over and over on the ground. In case any one be present, let them throw her down and do the like, and then wrap her up in a table-cloth, rug, coat, or the first woolen article that can be found.
FRACTURES.—As we can only give general rules for treating the various fractures, we would advise any one suffering from such to immediately apply to the nearest surgeon, and not rely upon an inexperienced party.
FROST-BITE.—Place the party suffering in a room without fire, and rub the frozen or frosted parts with snow, or pour ice-water over them until sensation begins to return. As soon as a stinging pain is felt, and a change of color appears, then cease the rubbing, and apply clothes wet with ice-water, and subsequently, if active inflammation follow and suppuration results, a solution of carbolic acid in water, one part to thirty, should be applied. If mortification set in, amputation is generally necessary. Where persons suffer from the constitutional effects of cold, hot stimulants should be given internally, and the body rubbed briskly with the hands and warm flannel.
POISONS, THEIR SYMPTOMS AND ANTIDOTES.—When a person has taken poison, the first thing to do is to compel the patient to vomit, and for that purpose give any emetic that can be most readily and quickly obtained,
and which is prompt and energetic, but safe in its action. For this purpose there is, perhaps, nothing better than a large teaspoonful of ground mustard in a tumblerful of warm water, and it has the advantage of being almost always at hand. If the dry mustard is not to be had, use mixed mustard from the mustard pot. Its operation may generally be facilitated by the addition of a like quantity of common table salt. If the mustard is not at hand, give two or three teaspoonfuls of powdered alum in syrup or molasses, and give freely of warm water to drink; or give ten to twenty grains of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), or twenty to thirty grains of ipecac, with one or two grains of tartar emetic, in a large cup of warm water, and repeat every ten minutes until three or four doses are given, unless free vomiting is sooner produced. After vomiting has taken place, large draughts of warm water should be given the patient, so that the vomiting will continue until the poisonous substances have been thoroughly evacuated, and then suitable antidotes should be given. If vomiting cannot be produced, the stomach-pump should be used. When it is known what particular kind of poison has been swallowed, then the proper antidote for that poison should be given, but when this cannot be ascertained, as is often the case, give freely of equal parts of calcined magnesia, pulverized charcoal, and sesquioxide of iron, in sufficient quantity of water. This is a very harmless mixture, and is likely to be of great benefit, as the ingredients, though very simple, are antidotes for the most common and active poisons. In case this mixture cannot be obtained, the stomach should be soothed and protected by the free administration of demulcent, mucilaginous or oleaginous drinks, such as the whites of eggs, milk, mucilage of gum arabic, or slippery elm bark, flaxseed tea, starch, wheat, flour, or arrow-root mixed in water, linseed or olive oil, or melted butter or lard. Subsequently the bowels should be moved by some gentle laxative, as a tablespoonful or two of castor oil, or a teaspoonful of calcined magnesia; and pain or other evidence of inflammation must be relieved by the administration of a few drops of laudanum, and the repeated application of hot poultices, fomentations and mustard plasters. The following are the names of the articles that may give rise to poisoning, most commonly used, and their antidote:
MINERAL ACIDS—SULPHURIC ACID (OIL OF VITRIOL), NITRIC ACID (AQUA FORTIS), MURIATIC ACID (SPIRITS OF SALTS).—Symptoms: Acid, burning taste in the mouth, acute pain in the throat, stomach and bowels; frequent vomiting, generally bloody, mouth and lips excoriated, shriveled, white or yellow; hiccough, copious stools, more or less bloody, with great tenderness in the abdomen; difficult breathing, irregular pulse, excessive thirst, while drink increases the pain and rarely remains in the stomach; frequent but vain efforts to urinate; cold sweats, altered countenance; convulsions generally preceding death; nitric acid causes yellow stains; sulphuric acid, black ones. Treatment: Mix calcined magnesia in milk or water to the consistence of cream, and give freely to drink a glassful every couple of minutes, if it can be swallowed. Common soap (hard or soft), chalk, whiting, or even mortar from the wall mixed in water, may be given, until magnesia can be obtained. Promote vomiting by tickling the throat, if necessary, and when the poison is got rid of, flaxseed or elm tea, gruel, or other mild drinks. The inflammation which always follows wants good treatment to save the patient's life.
VEGETABLE ACIDS—ACETIC, CITRIC, OXALIC, TARTARIC.—Symptoms: Intense burning pain of mouth, throat and stomach; vomiting blood which is highly acid, violent purging, collapse, stupor, death.
OXALIC ACID is frequently taken in mistake for Epsom salts, to which in shops it often bears a strong resemblance. Treatment: Give chalk or magnesia in a large quantity of water, or large draughts of lime water. If these are not at hand, scrape the wall or ceiling, and give the scrapings, mixed with water.
PRUSSIC OR HYDROCYANIC ACID—LAUREL WATER, CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM, BITTER ALMOND OIL, ETC.—Symptoms: In large doses almost invariably instantaneously fatal, when not immediately fatal, sudden loss of sense and control of the voluntary muscles; the odor of the poison generally susceptible on the breath. Treatment: Chlorine, in the form of chlorine water, in doses of from one to four fluid drachms, diluted. Weak solution of chloride lime of soda; water of ammonia (spirits of hartshorn) largely diluted may be given, and the vapor of it cautiously inhaled. Cold affusion, and chloroform in half to teaspoonful doses in glycerine or mucilage, repeated every few minutes, until the symptoms are ameliorated. Artificial respiration.
ACONITE—MONKSHOOD, WOLFSBANE.—Symptoms: Numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat, and afterwards in other portions of the body, with sore throat, pain over the stomach, and vomiting; dimness of vision, dizziness, great prostration, loss of sensibility and delirium. Treatment: An emetic and then brandy in tablespoonful doses, in ice-water, every half hour; spirits of ammonia in half teaspoonful doses in like manner; the cold douche over the head and chest, warmth to the extremities, etc.
ALKALIES AND THEIR SALTS—CONCENTRATED LYE, WOODASH LYE, CAUSTIC POTASH, AMMONIA, HARTSHORN.—Symptoms: Caustic, acrid taste, excessive heat in the throat, stomach and [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'intenstines'] intestines; vomiting of bloody matter, cold sweats, hiccough, purging of bloody stools.—Treatment: The common vegetable acids. Common vinegar being always at hand, is most frequently used. The fixed oils, as castor, flaxseed, almond and olive oils form soaps with the alkalies and thus also destroy their caustic effect. They should be given in large quantity.
ALCOHOL, BRANDY, AND OTHER SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.—Symptoms: Confusion of thought, inability to walk or stand, dizziness, stupor, highly flushed or pale face, noisy breathing.—Treatment: After emptying the stomach, pour cold water on the head and back of the neck, rub or slap the wrists and palms, and the ankles and soles of the feet, and give strong, hot coffee, or aromatic spirits of hartshorn, in teaspoonful doses in water. The warmth of the body must be sustained.
ANTIMONY, AND ITS PREPARATIONS. TARTAR EMETIC, ANTIMONIAL WINE, KERME'S MINERAL.—Symptoms: Faintness and nausea, soon followed by painful and continued vomiting, severe diarrhoea, constriction and burning sensation in the throat, cramps, or spasmodic twitchings, with symptoms of nervous derangement, and great prostration of strength, often terminating in death.—Treatment: If vomiting has not been produced, it should be effected by tickling the fauces, and administering copious draughts of warm water. Astringment infusions, such as of gall, oak bark, Peruvian bark, act as antidotes, and should be given promptly. Powdered yellow bark may be used until the infusion is prepared, or very strong green tea should be given. To stop the vomiting, should it continue, blister over the stomach by applying a cloth wet with strong spirits of hartshorn, and then sprinkle on the one-eighth to one-fourth of a grain of morphia.
ARSENIC AND ITS PREPARATIONS—RATSBANE, FOWLER'S SOLUTION, ETC.—Symptoms: Generally within an hour pain and heat are felt in the stomach, soon followed by vomiting, with a burning dryness of the throat and great thirst; the matters vomited are generally colored, either green yellow, or brownish, and sometimes bloody. Diarrhoea or dysentery ensues, while the pulse becomes small and rapid, yet irregular. Breathing much oppressed; difficulty in vomiting may occur, while cramps, convulsions, or even paralysis often precede death, which sometimes takes place within five or six hours after arsenic has been taken.—Treatment: Give a prompt emetic, and then hydrate of peroxide of iron (recently prepared) in tablespoonful doses every ten or fifteen minutes until the urgent symptoms are relieved. In the absence of this, or while it is being prepared, give large draughts of new milk and raw eggs, limewater and oil, melted butter, magnesia in a large quantity of water, or even if nothing else is at hand, flour and water, always, however, giving an emetic the first thing, or causing vomiting by tickling the throat with a feather, etc. The inflammation of the stomach which follows must be treated by blisters, hot fomentations, mucilaginous drinks, etc., etc.
BELLADONNA OR DEADLY NIGHT SHADE.—Symptoms: Dryness of the mouth and throat, great thirst, difficulty of swallowing, nausea, dimness, confusion or loss of vision, great enlargement of the pupils, dizziness, delirium and coma.—Treatment: There is no known antidote. Give a prompt emetic and then reliance must be placed on continual stimulation with brandy, whisky, etc., and to necessary artificial respiration. Opium and its preparations, as morphia, laudanum, etc., are thought by some to counteract the effect of belladonna, and may be given in small and repeated doses, as also strong black coffee and green tea.
BLUE VITRIOL, OR BLUE STONE.—See Copperas.
CANTHARIDES (SPANISH OR BLISTERING FLY) AND MODERN POTATO BUG.—Symptoms: Sickening odor of the breath, sour taste, with burning heat in the throat, stomach, and bowels; frequent vomiting, often bloody; copious bloody stools, great pain in the stomach, with burning sensation in the bladder and difficulty to urinate, followed with terrible convulsions, delirium and death.—Treatment excite vomiting by drinking plentifully of sweet oil or other wholesome oils, sugar and water, milk. Or slippery elm tea; give injections of castor oil and starch, or warm milk. The inflammatory symptoms which generally follow must, be treated by a medical man. Camphorated oil or camphorated spirits should be rubbed over the bowels, stomach and thighs.
CAUSTIC POTASH.—See Alkalies.
COBALT, OR FLY-POWDER.—Symptoms: Heat and pain in the. Throat and stomach, violent retching and vomiting, cold and clammy skin, small and feeble pulse, hurried and difficult breathing, diarrhoea, etc.—Treatment: An emetic, followed by the free administration of milk, eggs, wheat flour and water, and mucilaginous drinks.
COPPER—BLUE VITRIOL, VERDIGRIS OR PICKLES OR FOOD COOKED IN SOUL COPPER VESSELS.—Symptoms: General inflammation of the alimentary canal, suppression of urine; hiccough, a disagreeable metallic taste, vomiting, violent colic, excessive thirst, sense of tightness of the throat, anxiety; faintness, giddiness, and cramps and convulsions generally precede death.—Treatment: Large doses of simple syrup as warm as can be swallowed, until the stomach rejects the amount it contains. The whites of eggs and large quantities of milk. Hydrated peroxide of iron.
COPPERAS.—See Iron.
CREOSOTE.—CARBOLIC ACID.—Symptoms: Burning pain. Acrid, pungent taste, thirst, vomiting, purging, etc.—Treatment: An emetic, and the free administration of albumen, as the whites of eggs, or in the absence of these, milk, or flour and water.
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE.—See Mercury.
DEADLY NIGHT-SHADE.—See Belladonna.
FOX-GLOVE, OR DIGITALIS.—Symptoms: Loss of strength, feeble, fluttering pulse, faintness, nausea, and vomiting and stupor; cold perspiration, dilated pupils, sighing, irregular breathing, and sometimes convulsions.—Treatment: After vomiting, give brandy and ammonia in frequently repeated doses, apply warmth to the extremities, and if necessary resort to artificial respiration.
GASES—CARBONIC ACID, CHLORINE, CYANOGEN, HYDROSULPHURIC ACID, ETC.—Symptoms: Great drowsiness, difficult respiration, features swollen, face blue as in strangulation.—Treatment: Artificial respirations, cold douche, frictions with stimulating substances to the surface of the body. Inhalation of steam containing preparations of ammonia. Cupping from nape of neck. Internal use of chloroform.
GREEN VITRIOL.—See Iron.
HELLEBORE, OR INDIAN POKE.—Symptoms: Violent vomiting and purging, bloody stools, great anxiety, tremors, vertigo, fainting, sinking of the pulse, cold sweets and convulsions.—Treatment: Excite speedy vomiting by large draughts of warm water, molasses and water, tickling the throat with the finger or a feather, and emetics; give oily and mucilaginous drinks, oily purgatives, and clysters, acids, strong coffee, camphor and opium.
HEMLOCK (CONIUM).—Symptoms: Dryness of the throat, tremors, dizziness, difficulty of swallowing, prostration and faintness, limbs powerless or paralyzed, pupils dilated, pulse rapid and feeble; insensibility and convulsions sometimes precede death.—Treatment: Empty the stomach and give brandy in tablespoonful doses, with half teaspoonful of spirits of Ammonia, frequently repeated, and if much pain and vomiting, give bromide of ammonium in five-grain doses every half hour. Artificial respiration may be required.
HENBANE OR HYOSCYAMUS.—Symptoms: Muscular twitching, inability to articulate plainly, dimness of vision and stupor; later, vomiting and purging, small, intermittent pulse, convulsive movement of the extremities and coma. Treatment: Similar to Opium Poisoning, which see.
IODINE.—Symptoms: Burning pain in throat, lacerating pain in the stomach, fruitless effort to vomit, excessive tenderness of the epigastrium. Treatment: Free emesis, prompt administration of starch, wheat flour, or arrowroot, beat up in water.
LEAD.—ACETATE OF LEAD, SUGAR OF LEAD, DRY WHITE LEAD, RED LEAD, LITHARGE, OR PICKLES, WINE, OR VINEGAR, SWEETENED BY LEAD.—Symptoms: When taken in large doses, a sweet but astringent metallic taste exists, with constriction in the throat, pain in the region of the stomach, painful, obstinate, and frequently bloody vomitings, hiccough, convulsions or spasms, and death. When taken in small but long-continued doses, it produces colic, called painter's colic; great pain, obstinate constipation, and in extreme cases paralytic, symptoms, especially wrist-drop, with a blue line along the edge of the gums. Treatment: To counteract the poison, give alum in water, one and a half ounce to a quart; or, better still, Epsom salts or Glauber salts, an ounce of either in a quart of water; or dilute sulphuric acid, a teaspoonful in a quart of water. If a large quantity of sugar of lead has been recently taken, empty the stomach by an emetic of sulphate of zinc (one drachm in a quart of water), giving one-fourth to commence, and repeating smaller doses until free vomiting is produced; castor oil should be given to clear the bowels, and injections of oil and starch freely administered. If the body is cold, use the warm bath.
MEADOW SAFFRON.—See Belladonna.
LAUDANUM.—See Opium.
LUNAR CAUSTIC.—See Silver.
LOBELIA.—Indian Poke.—Symptoms: Excessive vomiting and purging, pains in the bowels, contraction of the pupils, delirium, coma, and convulsions. Treatment: Mustard over the stomach, and brandy and ammonia.
MERCURY.—CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE (bug poisons frequently contain this poison), RED PRECIPITATE, CHINESE OR ENGLISH VERMILLION.—Symptoms: Acrid, metallic taste in the mouth, immediate constriction and burning in the throat, with anxiety and tearing pains in both stomach and bowels, sickness, and vomiting of various colored fluids, and sometimes bloody and profuse diarrhoea, with difficulty and pain in urinating; pulse quick, small and hard; faint sensations, great debility, difficult breathing, cramps, cold sweats, syncope and convulsions. Treatment: If vomiting does not already exist, emetics must be given immediately—albumen of eggs in continuous large doses, and infusion of catechu afterwards, sweet milk, mixtures of flour and water in successive cupfuls, and to check excessive salivation put a half ounce of chlorate of potash in a tumbler of water, and use freely as a gargle, and swallow a tablespoonful every hour or two.
MONKSHOOD.—See Arnica.
MORPHINE.—See Opium.
NITRATE OF SILVER (LUNAR CAUSTIC.)—Symptoms: Intense pain and vomiting and purging of blood; mucus and shreds of mucus membranes; and if these stand they become dark. Treatment: Give freely of a solution of common salt in water, which decomposes the poison, and afterwards flax-seed or elm bark tea, and after a while a dose of castor oil.
NUX VOMICA.—See Strychnine.
OPIUM AND ALL ITS PREPARATIONS—MORPHINE, LAUDANUM, PAREGORIC, ETC.—Symptoms: Giddiness, drowsiness, increasing to stupor, and insensibility; pulse usually, at first, quirk and irregular, and breathing hurried, and afterwards pulse slow and feeble, and respiration slow and noisy; the pupils are contracted and the eyes and face congested, and later, as death approaches, the extremities become cold, the surface is covered with cold, clammy perspiration, and the sphincters relax. The effects of opium and its preparations, in poisonous doses, appear in from a half to two hours from its administration. Treatment: Empty the stomach immediately with an emetic or with the stomach pump. Then give very strong coffee without milk; put mustard plasters on the wrist and ankles; use the cold douche to the head and chest, and if the patient is cold and sinking give brandy, or whisky and ammonia. Belladonna is thought by many to counteract the poisonous effects of opium, and may be given in doses of half to a teaspoonful of the tincture, or two grains of the extract, every twenty minutes, until some effect is observed in causing the pupils to expand. Use warmth and friction, and if possible prevent sleep for some hours, for which purpose the patient should be walked about between two persons, and if necessary a bunch of switches may be freely used. Finally, as a last resort, use artificial respiration, and a persistance in it will sometimes be rewarded with success in apparently hopeless cases. Galvanism should also be tried. OXALIC ACID.—See Acids.
PHOSPHORUS—FOUND IN LUCIFER MATCHES AND SOME RAT POISONS.—Symptoms: Symptoms of irritant poisoning; pain in the stomach and bowels; vomiting; diarrhoea; tenderness and tension of the abdomen. Treatment: An emetic is to be promptly given; copious draughts containing magnesia in suspension: mucilaginous drinks. General treatment for inflammatory symptoms.
POISONOUS FISH.—Symptoms: In an hour or two—often in much shorter time—after the fish has been eaten, a weight at the stomach comes on, with slight vertigo and headache; sense of heat about the head and eyes; considerable thirst, and often an eruption of the skin. Treatment: After full vomiting, an active purgative should be given to remove any of the noxious matter from the intestines. Vinegar and water may be drunk after the above remedies have operated, and the body may be sponged with the same. Water made very sweet with sugar, with aromatic spirits of ammonia added, may be drunk freely as a corrective. A solution of cholorate of potash, or of alkali, the latter weak, may be given to obviate the effect of the poison. If spasms ensue after evacuation, laudanum in considerable doses it necessary. If inflammation should occur, combat in the usual way.
POISONOUS MUSHROOMS.—- Symptoms: Nausea, heat and pains in the stomach and bowels; vomiting and purging, thirst, convulsions and faintings, pulse small and frequent, dilated pupil and stupor, cold sweats and death.
Treatment: The stomach and bowels are to be cleared by an emetic of ground mustard or sulphate of zinc, followed by frequent doses of Glauber of Epsom salts, and large stimulating clysters. After the poison is evacuated, either may be given with small quantities of brandy and water. But if inflammatory symptoms manifest themselves, such stimuli should be avoided, and these symptoms appropriately treated.
POTASH.—See Alkali.
PRUSSIC ACID, HYDROCYANIC.—See Acids.
POISON IVY.—Symptoms. Contact with, and with many persons the near approach to the vine, gives rise to violent erysipelatous inflammation, especially of the face and hands, attended with itching, redness, burning and swelling, with watery blisters.
Treatment: Give saline laxatives, and apply weak lead and laudanum, or limewater and sweet oil, or bathe the parts freely with spirits of nitre. Anointing with oil will prevent poisoning from it.
SALTPETRE, NITRATE OF POTASH.—Symptoms. Only poisonous in large quantities, and then causes nausea, painful vomiting, purging, convulsions, faintness, feeble pulse, cold feet and hands, with tearing pains in stomach and bowels.
Treatment: Treat just as is directed for arsenic, for there is no antidote known, and emptying the stomach and bowels with mild drinks must be relied on.
SAVINE.—Symptoms: Sharp pains in the bowels, hot skin, rapid pulse, violent vomiting and sometimes purging, with great prostration. Treatment: Mustard and hot fomentations over the stomach and bowels, and ice only allowed in the stomach until the inflammation ceases. If prostration comes on, food and stimulants must be given by injection.
STRAMONIUM, THORN-APPLE OR JAMESTOWN WEED.—Symptoms: Vertigo, headache, perversion of vision, slight delirium, sense of suffocation, disposition to sleep, bowels relaxed and all secretions augmented. Treatment: Same as Belladonna.
STRYCHNINE AND NUX VOMICA.—Symptoms: Muscular twitching, constriction of the throat, difficult breathing and oppression of the chest; violent muscular spasms then occur, continuous in character like lock-jaw, with the body bent backwards, sometimes like a bow. Treatment: Give, if obtainable, one ounce or more of bone charcoal mixed with water, and follow with an active emetic; then give chloroform in teaspoonful doses, in flour and water or glycerine, every few minutes while the spasms last, and afterwards brandy and stimulants, and warmth of the extremities if necessary. Recoveries have followed the free and prompt administration of oils or melted butter or lard. In all cases empty the stomach if possible.
SULPHATE OF ZINC, WHITE VITRIOL.—See Zinc.
TIN—CHLORIDE OF TIN, SOLUTION OF TIN (USED BY DYERS), OXIDE OF TIN OR PUTTY POWDER.—Symptoms: Vomiting, pains in the stomach, anxiety, restlessness, frequent pulse, delirium, etc. Treatment: Empty the stomach, and give whites of eggs in water, milk in large quantities, or flour beaten, up in water, with magnesia or chalk.
TARTAR EMETIC.—See Antimony.
TOBACCO.—Symptoms: Vertigo, stupor, fainting, nausea, vomiting, sudden nervous debility, cold sweat, tremors, and at times fatal prostration. Treatment: After the stomach is empty apply mustard to the abdomen and to the extremities, and give strong coffee, with brandy and other stimulants, with warmth to the extremities.
ZINC—OXIDE OF ZINC, SULPHATE OF ZINC, WHITE VITRIOL, ACETATE OF ZINC.—Symptoms: Violent vomiting, astringent taste, burning pain in the stomach, pale countenance, cold extremities, dull eyes, fluttering pulse. Death seldom ensues, in consequence of the emetic effect. Treatment: The vomiting may be relieved by copious draughts of warm water. Carbonate of soda, administered in solution, will decompose the sulphate of zinc. Milk and albumen will also act as antidotes. General principles to be observed in the subsequent treatment.
WOORARA.—Symptoms: When taken into the stomach it is inert; when absorbed through a wound it causes sudden stupor and insensibility, frothing at the mouth and speedy death. Treatment: Suck the wound immediately, or cut it out and tie a cord around the limb between the wound and the heart. Apply iodine, or iodide of potassium, and give it internally, and try artificial respiration.
SCALDS.—See Burns and Scalds.
SPRAINS.—The portions most frequently implicated are the wrist and ankle; no matter which portion it may be, however, rest and quietness is a very important part of the treatment, and, when possible, in an elevated position. If the wrist is sprained it should be carried in a sling; if the ankle, it should be supported on a couch or stool. Cold lotions (see Bruises) should be freely applied, and irrigation by pouring water from a pitcher or tea-kettle resorted to several times a day to prevent inflammation. Later, frictions with opodeldoc, or with some stimulating liniment, and supporting the parts by pressure made with a flannel roller, or laced stocking when the ankle is involved, will be useful to restore tone; or strips of adhesive plaster properly applied will be useful for the same purpose. Recovery from severe sprains is always tedious. It is an old saying "that a bad sprain is worse than a broken bone."
STINGS OF BEES AND WASPS.—See Bites and Stings.
SUFFOCATION FROM NOXIOUS GASES, FOUL AIR, FIRE DAMP, ETC.—Remove to fresh air and dash cold water over the head, neck and chest; carefully apply hartshorn, or smelling salts to the nostrils, and when the breathing is feeble or has ceased, resort immediately to artificial respiration (see Asphyxia and Drowning). Keep up the warmth of the body, and as soon as the patient can swallow give stimulants in small quantities.
SUNSTROKE.—This is caused by long exposure in great heat, especially when accompanied with great fatigue and exhaustion. Though generally happening from exposure to the sun's rays, yet precisely similar effects may be and are produced from any undue exposure to great and exhaustive heat, such as workmen are exposed to in foundries, gas factories, bakeries, and other similar employments. Its first symptom is pain in the head and dizziness, quickly followed by loss of consciousness, and resulting in complete prostration: sometimes, however, the attack is sudden, as in apoplexy. The head is generally burning hot, the face, dark and swollen, the breathing labored and snoring, and the feet and hands cold. Remove the patient at once to a cool and shady place, and lay him down with his head a little raised; apply ice or iced water to the head and face; loosen all cloths around the neck or waist; bathe the chest with cold water, apply mustard plasters, or cloths wetted with turpentine, to the calves and soles of the feet, and as soon as the patient can swallow, give weak brandy or whisky and water.
There is no easy road to success—I Thank God for it . . . . A trained man will make his life tall. Without training, you are left on a sea of luck, where thousands go down, while one meets with success. JAMES A. GARFIELD.
* * * * *
THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN
The following receipts written by DR. J. H. Gunn will be found of great value, especially in emergencies:
ASTHMA.—Take hyssop water and poppy water, of each ten ounces; oxymel of squills, six ounces; syrup of maiden hair, two ounces. Take one spoonful when you find any difficulty in breathing.
AGUE IN THE BREAST.—Take one part of gum camphor, two parts yellow bees-wax, three parts clean lard; let all melt slowly, in any vessel [earthen best], on stove. Use either cold or warm; spread very thinly on cotton or linen cloths, covering those with flannel. No matter if the breast is broken, it will cure if persevered in. Do not, no matter how painful, cease from drawing milk from the breast that is affected.
AGUE, MIXTURE.—Mix twenty grains quinine with one pint diluted gin or port wine, and add ten grains subcarbonate of iron. Dose, a wine-glass each hour until the ague is broken, and then two or three times a day until the whole has been used.
2. Take Peruvian bark, two ounces; wild cherry tree bark, 1 ounce; cinnamon, one drachm; powdered capsicum, one teaspoonful; sulphur, one ounce; port wine, two quarts. Let it stand a day or two. Dose, a wine-glassful every two or three hours until the disease is broken, and then two or three times a day until all is taken.
SPRAINED ANKLE.—Wash the ankle frequently with cold salt and water, which is far better than warm vinegar or decoctions of herbs. Keep your foot as cold as possible to prevent inflammation, and sit with it elevated on a cushion. Live on very low diet, and take every day some cooling medicine. By obeying these directions only, a sprained ankle has been cured in a few days.
APOPLEXY.—Occurs only in the corpulent or obese, and the gross or high livers. To treat, raise the head to a nearly upright position; unloose all tight clothes, strings, etc., and apply cold water to the head and warm water and warm cloths to the feet. Have the apartment cool and well ventilated. Give nothing by the mouth until the breathing is relieved, and then only draughts of cold water.
PREPARATION FOR THE CURE OF BALDNESS.—Rum, one pint; alcohol, one ounce; distilled water, one ounce, tincture of cantharides, a half drachm; carbonate of potash, a half drachm; carbonate of ammonia, one drachm. Mix the liquids after having dissolved the salts, and filter. After the skin of the head has been wetted with this preparation for several minutes, it should be washed with water.
BILIOUS COLIC.—Mix two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal in half a pint of cold water; drink it at two draughts.
BILIOUS COMPLAINTS.—Take the root and branch of dandelion, and steep it in soft water a sufficient length of time to extract all the essence; then strain the liquor and simmer until it becomes quite thick. Dose: From one to three glasses a day may be taken with good effect.
BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.—To one quart blackberry juice add one pound white sugar, one tablespoonful each cloves, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Boil together fifteen minutes, and add a wine-glass of whisky, brandy or rum. Bottle while hot, cork tight and seal. Used in diarrhea and dysentery. Dose, a wine-glassful for an adult, half that quantity for a child. It can be taken three or four times a day if the case is severe.
BLISTERS.—- On the feet, occasioned by walking, are cured by drawing a needleful of worsted thread through them; clip it off at both ends and leave it till the skin peals off.
RAISING BLOOD.—Make a tea of white oak bark, and drink freely during the day; or take half a pound of yellow dock root, boil in new milk, say one quart: drink one gill three times a day, and take one pill of white pine pitch every day.
HOW TO STOP BLOOD.—Take the fine dust of tea, or the scrapings of the inside of tanned leather. Bind it upon the wound closely, and blood will soon cease to flow.
BOILS.—Make a poultice of ginger and flour, and lay it on the boil. This will soon draw it to a head.
SWELLED BOWELS IN CHILDREN.—Bathe the stomach of the child with catnip steeped, mixed with fresh butter and sugar.
CHILBLAINS.—Dr. Fergus recommends sulphurous acid in this affection. It should be applied with a camel's hair brush, or by means of a spray producer. One application of this effects a cure. The acid should be used pure. A good wash for hands or feet affected with chilblains is sulphurous acid, three parts; glycerine, one part, and water one part. The acid will be found particularly useful in the irritating, tormenting stage of chilblains.
CHILBLAINS AND CHAPPED HANDS.—When chilblains manifest themselves, the best remedy not only for preventing their ulcerating, but overcoming the tingling, itching pain, and stimulating the circulation of the part to healthy action, is the liniment of belladona, two drachms; the liniment of aconite, one drachm; carbolic acid, ten drops; collodion flexile, one ounce; painted with a camel's hair pencil over their surface. When the chilblains vesicate, ulcerate or slough, it is better to omit the aconite and apply the other components of the liniment without it. The collodion flexile forms a coating or protecting film, which excludes the air, while the sedative liniments allay the irritation, generally of no trivial nature. For chapped hands we advise the free use of glycerine and good oil, in the proportion of two parts of the former to four of the latter; after this has been well rubbed into the hands and allowed to remain for a little time, and the hands subsequently washed with Castile soap and water, we recommend the belladonna and collodion flexile to be painted on, and the protective film allowed to remain permanently. These complaints not unfrequently invade persons of languid circulation and relaxed habit, who should be put on a generous regimen, and treated with ferruginous tonics. Obstinate, cases are occasionally met with which no local application will remedy, unless some disordered state of the system is removed, or the general condition of the patient's health improved. Chapped lips are also benefited by the stimulating form of application we advocate, but the aconite must not be allowed to get on the lips, or a disagreeable tingling results.
CHILBLAIN BALM.—Boil together ten fluid ounces olive oil, two fluid ounces Venice turpentine, and one ounce yellow wax; strain, and while still warm add, constantly stirring, two and a half drachms balsam of Peru and ten grains camphor.
CURE FOR CHILBLAIN.—Make a strong lye by boiling wood ashes in water. Put your feet in a small tub and cover them with the lye as hot as you can bear it. Gradually add more lye, hotter and hotter. Keep them in half an hour, bathing and rubbing them continually, and being very careful to keep the lye hot.
CHILBLAIN LOTION.—Dissolve one ounce muriate of ammonia in one-half pint cider vinegar, and apply frequently. One-half pint of alcohol may be added to this lotion with good effects.
CHILBLAIN OINTMENT.—Take mutton tallow and lard, of each three-fourths of a pound avoirdupois; melt, in an iron vessel, and add hydrated oxide of iron, two ounces, stirring continually with an iron spoon until the mass is of a uniform black color; when nearly cool add Venice turpentine, two ounces; Armenian bole, one ounce; oil of bergamot, one drachm; rub up the bole with a little olive oil before putting it in. Apply several times daily by putting it upon lint or linen. It heals the worst cases in a few days.
RUSSIAN REMEDY FOR CHILBLAINS.—Slices of the rind of fully ripe cucumbers, dried with the soft parts attached. Previous to use they are softened by soaking them in warm water, and are then bound on the sore parts with the inner side next them, and left on all night. This treatment is said to be adopted for both broken and unbroken chilblains. HOW TO CURE ITCHING CHILBLAINS.—Take hydrochloric acid, one part, and water, eight parts; mix. Apply on going to bed. This must not be used if the skin is broken. Sal ammoniac, two ounces; rum, one pint; camphor, two drachms. The affected part is wetted night and morning, and when dry is touched with a little simple ointment of any kind—cold cream or pomatum.
Oil of turpentine, four ounces; camphor, six drachms; oil of cajeput, two drachms. Apply with friction.
HOW TO CURE BROKEN CHILBLAINS.—Mix together four fluid ounces collodion, one and a half fluid ounces Venice turpentine, and one fluid ounce castor oil.
HOW TO CURE CORNS.—Take equal parts of mercurial and galbanum ointments; mix them well together, spread on a piece of soft leather, and apply it to the corns morning and evening. In a few days benefit will be derived. Take two ounces of gum ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax, and six ounces of verdigris; melt them together, and spread the composition on soft leather; cut away as much of the corn as you can, then apply the plaster, and renew it every fortnight till the corn is away. Get four ounces of white diachylon plaster, four ounces of shoemaker's wax, and sixty drops of muriatic acid or spirits of salt. Boil them for a few minutes in an earthen pipkin, and when cold roll the mass between the hands, and apply it on a piece of white leather. Soak the feet well in warm water, then with a sharp instrument pare off as much of the corn as can be done without pain, and bind up the part with a piece of linen or muslin thoroughly saturated with sperm oil, or, which is better, the oil which floats upon the surface of the herring or mackerel. After three or four days the dressing may be removed by scraping, when the new skin will be found of a soft and healthy texture, and less liable to the formation of a new corn than before. Corns may be prevented by wearing easy shoes. Bathe the feet frequently in lukewarm water, with a little salt or potashes dissolved in it. The corn itself will be completely destroyed by rubbing it often with a little caustic solution of potash till the soft skin is formed. Scrape to a pulp sufficient Spanish garlic, and bind on the corn over night, after first soaking it well in warm water, and scrape off as much as possible of the hardened portion in the morning. Repeat the application as required.
HOW TO CURE SOFT CORNS.—Scrape a piece of common chalk, and put a pinch to the soft corn, and bind a piece of linen rag upon it.
HOW TO CURE TENDER CORNS.—A strong solution of tannic acid is said to be an excellent application to tender feet as well as a preventive of the offensive odor attendant upon their profuse perspiration. To those of our readers who live far away in the country, we would suggest a strong decoction of oak bark as a substitute.
CAUSTIC FOR CORNS.—Tincture of iodine, four drachms: iodide of iron, twelve grains; chloride of antimony, four drachms; mix, and apply with a camel's hair brush, after paring the corn. It is said to cure in three times.
HOW TO RELIEVE CORNS.—Bind them up at night with a cloth wet with tincture of arnica, to relieve the pain, and during the day occasionally moisten the stocking over the corn with arnica if the shoe is not large enough to allow the corn being bound up with a piece of linen rag.
REMEDY FOR CORNS.—1. The pain occasioned by corns may be greatly alleviated by the following preparation: Into a one-ounce vial put two drachms of muriatic acid and six drachms of rose-water. With this mixture wet the corns night and morning for three days. Soak the feet every evening in warm water without soap. Put one-third of the acid into the water, and with a little picking the corn will be dissolved. 2. Take a lemon, cut off a small piece, then nick it so as to let in the toe with the corn, tie this on at night so that it cannot move, and in the morning you will find that, with a blunt knife, you may remove a considerable portion of the corn. Make two or three applications, and great relief will be the result.
HOW TO CURE SOLVENT CORNS.—Expose salt of tartar (pearlash) in a wide-mouth vial in a damp place until it forms an oil-like liquid, and apply to the corn.
HOW TO CURE CHOLERA.—Take laudanum, tincture cayenne, compound tincture rhubarb, peppermint, and camphor, of each equal parts. Dose, ten to thirty drops. In plain terms, take equal parts tincture of opium, red pepper, rhubarb, peppermint and camphor, and mix them for use. In case of diarroea, take a dose of ten to twenty drops in three or four teaspoonfuls of water. No one who has this by him, and takes it in time, will ever have the cholera.
SIGNS OF DISEASE IN CHILDREN.—In the case of a baby not yet able to talk, it must cry when it is ill. The colic makes a baby cry loud, long, and passionately, and shed tears—stopping for a moment and beginning again.
If the chest is affected, it gives one sharp cry, breaking off immediately, as if crying hurt it.
If the head is affected, it cries in sharp, piercing shrieks, with low moans and wails between. Or there may be quiet dozing, and startings between.
It is easy enough to perceive, where a child is attacked by disease, that there has some change taken place; for either its skin will be dry and hot, its appetite gone; it is stupidly sleepy, or fretful or crying; it is thirsty, or pale and languid, or in some way betrays that something is wrong. When a child vomits, or has a diarrhoea, or is costive and feverish, it is owing to some derangement, and needs attention. But these various symptoms may continue for a day or two before the nature of the disease can be determined. A warm bath, warm drinks, etc., can do no harm, and may help to determine the case. On coming out of the bath, and being well rubbed with the hand, the skin will show symptoms of rash, if it is a skin disease which has commenced. By the appearance of the rash, the nature of the disease can be learned. Measles are in patches, dark red, and come out first about the face. If scarlet fever is impending, the skin will look a deep pink all over the body, though most so about the neck and face. Chicken-pox shows fever, but not so much running at the nose, and appearances of cold, as in measles, nor is there as much of a cough. Besides, the spots are smaller, and do not run much together, and are more diffused over the whole surface of the skin; and enlarge into blisters in a day or two.
HOW TO CURE CONSUMPTION.—Take one tablespoonful of tar, and the yolks of three hen's eggs, beat them well together. Dose, one tablespoonful morning, noon and night.
CROUP, REMEDY FOR IN ONE MINUTE.—This remedy is simply alum. Take a knife or grater, and shave or grate off in small particles about a teaspoonful of alum; mix it with about twice its quantity of sugar, to make it palatable, and administer as quickly as possible. Its effects will be truly magical, as almost instantaneous relief will be afforded.
CHOLERA REMEDY, HARTSHORNE'S.—Take of chloroform, tincture of opium, spirits of camphor, and spirits of aromatic ammonia, each one and one-half fluid drachms; creosote, three drops; oil of cinnamon, eight drops; brandy, two fluid drachms. Dilute a teaspoonful with a wine-glass of water, and give two teaspoonfuls every five minutes, followed by a lump of ice.
CURE FOR DANDRUFF.—Good mild soap is one of the safest remedies, and
is sufficient in ordinary cases; carbonate of potash or soda is too alkaline for the skin. Every application removes a portion of the cuticle, as you may observe by the smoothness of the skin of your hands after washing them with it. Borax is recommended; but this is also soda combined with a weak acid, boracic acid, and may by protracted use also injuriously act on the scalp. Soap is also soda or potash combined with the weak, fatty acids; and when the soap contains an excess of the alkalies or is sharp, it is as injurious as the carbonate of potash. All that injures the scalp injures the growth of the hair. One of the best applications from the vegetable kingdom is the mucilaginous decoction of the root of the burdock, called bardane in French (botanical name, Lappa Minor). In the mineral kingdom the best remedy is a solution of flowers of sulphur in water, which may be made by the addition of a very small portion of sulphide of potassium, say ten or twenty grains to the pint. This solution is shaken up with the sulphur, and the clear liquid remaining on the top is used. This recipe is founded on the fact that sulphur is a poison for inferior vegetable or animal growth, like dandruff, itch, etc., and is not at all a poison for the superior animal like man.
HOW TO CURE DIPHTHERIA.—A French physician expresses his preference for lemon juice, as a local application in diphtheria, to chlorate of potash, nitrate of silver, perchloride of lime water. He uses it by dipping a little plug of cottonwood, twisted around a wire, in the juice, and pressing it against the diseased surface four or five times daily.
HOW TO CURE BAD BREATH.—Bad or foul breath will be removed by taking a teaspoonful of the following mixture after each meal: One ounce liquor of potassa, one ounce chloride of soda, one and one-half ounces phosphate of soda, and three ounces of water.
2. Chlorate of potash, three drachms; rose-water, four ounces. Dose, a tablespoonful four or five times daily.
HOW TO CURE BUNIONS.—A bunion is a swelling on the ball of the great toe, and is the result of pressure and irritation by friction. The treatment for corns applies also to bunions; but in consequence of the greater extension of the disease, the cure is more tedious. When a bunion is forming it may be stopped by poulticing and carefully opening it with a lancet.
HOW TO CURE BURNS AND SCALDS.—Take half a pound of powdered alum, dissolve it in a quart of water; bathe the burn or scald with a linen rag, wetted with this mixture, then bind the wet rag on it with a strip of linen, and moisten the bandage with the alum water frequently, without removing it during two or three days.
TEA LEAVES FOR BURNS.—Dr. Searles, of Warsaw, Wis., reports the immediate relief from pain in severe burns and scalds by the application of a poultice of tea leaves.
HOW TO CURE CANCER.—Boil down the inner bark of red and white oak to the consistency of molasses; apply as a plaster, shifting it once a week; or, burn red-oak bark to ashes; sprinkle it on the sore till it is eaten out; then apply a plaster of tar; or, take garget berries and leaves of stramonium; simmer them together in equal parts of neatsfoot oil and the tops of hemlock; mix well together, and apply it to the parts affected; at the same time make a tea of winter-green (root and branch); put a handful into two quarts of water; add two ounces of sulphur and drink of this tea freely during the day.
CASTOR OIL MIXTURE.—Castor oil, one dessert spoonful; magnesia, one dessert spoonful. Rub together into a paste. By this combination, the taste of the oil is almost entirely concealed, and children take it without opposition. HOW TO DISGUISE CASTOR OIL.—Rub up two drops oil of cinnamon with an ounce of glycerine and add an ounce of castor oil. Children will take it as a luxury and ask for more.
CASTOR OIL EMULSIONS.—Take castor oil and syrup, each one ounce; the yolk of an egg, and orange flower water, one-half ounce. Mix. This makes a very pleasant emulsion, which is readily taken by adults as well as children. HOW TO CURE CATARRH.—Take the bark of sassafras root, dry and pound it, use it as a snuff, taking two or three pinches a day.
HOW TO CURE CHILBLAINS.—Wash the parts in strong alum water, apply as hot as can be borne.
HOW TO CURE COLD.—Take three cents' worth of liquorice, three of rock candy, three of gum arabic, and put them into a quart of water; simmer them till thoroughly dissolved, then add three cents' worth paregoric, and a like quantity of antimonial wine.
HOW TO CURE CORNS.—Boil tobacco down to an extract, then mix with it a quantity of white pine pitch, and apply it to the corn; renew it once a week until the corn disappears.
GOOD COUGH MIXTURE.—Two ounces ammonia mixture; five ounces camphor mixture; one drachm tincture of digitalis (foxglove); one-half ounce each of sweet spirits of nitre and syrup of poppies; two drachms solution of sulphate of morphia. A tablespoonful of this mixture is to be taken four times a day.
2. Tincture of blood-root, one ounce; sulphate of morphia, one and a half grains; tincture of digitalis, one-half ounce; wine of antimony, one-half ounce; oil of wintergreen, ten drops. Mix. Dose from twenty to forty drops twice or three times a day. Excellent for a hard, dry cough.
3. Common sweet cider, boiled down to one-half, makes a most, excellent syrup for colds or coughs for children, is pleasant to the taste, and will keep for a year in a cool cellar. In recovering from
an illness, the system has a craving for some pleasant drink. This is found in cider which is placed on the fire as soon as made, and allowed to come to a boil, then cooled, put in casks, and kept in a cool cellar.
4. Roast a large lemon very carefully without burning; when it is thoroughly hot, cut and squeeze into a cup upon three ounces of sugar candy. Finely powdered: take a spoonful whenever your cough troubles you. It is as good as it is pleasant.
CURE FOR DEAFNESS.—Take ant's eggs and union juice. Mix and drop them into the ear. Drop into the ear, at night, six or eight drops of hot sweet oil.
REMEDIES FOR DIARRHOEA.—1. Take one teaspoonful of salt, the same of good vinegar, and a tablespoonful of water; mix and drink. It acts like a charm on the system, and even one dose will generally cure obstinate cases of diarrhoea, or the first stages of cholera. If the first does not bring complete relief, repeat the dose, as it is quite harmless. 2. The best rhubarb root, pulverized, 1 ounce; peppermint leaf, 1 ounce, capsicum, 1/8 ounce; cover with boiling water and steep thoroughly, strain, and add bicarbonate of potash and essence of cinnamon, of each 1/2 ounce; with brandy (or good whisky); equal in amount to the whole, and loaf sugar, four ounces. Dose—for an adult, 1 or 2 tablespoons; for a child, 1 to 2 teaspoons, from 3 to 6 times per day, until relief is obtained. 3. To half a bushel of blackberries; well mashed, add a quarter of a pound of allspice, 2 ounces of cinnamon, 2 ounces of cloves; pulverize well, mix and boil slowly until properly done; then strain or squeeze the juice through home-spun or flannel, and add to each pint of the juice 1 pound of loaf sugar, boil again for some time, take it off, and while cooling, add half a gallon of the best Cognac brandy.
CURE FOR CHRONIC DIARRHOEA. Rayer recommends the association of cinchona, charcoal and bismuth in the treatment of chronic diarrhoea, in the following proportions: Subnitrate of bismuth, one drachm; cinchona, yellow, powdered, one-half drachm; charcoal, vegetable, one drachm. Make twenty powders and take two or three a day during the intervals between meals.
CURES FOR DYSENTERY.—Tincture rhubarb, tincture of capsicum, tincture of camphor, essence of ginger and laudanum, equal parts. Mix; shake well and take from ten to twenty drops every thirty minutes, until relief is obtained. This is a dose for an adult. Half the amount for a child under twelve years of age. 2. Take some butter off the churn, immediately after being churned, just as it is, without being salted or washed: clarify it over the fire like honey. Skim off all the milky particles when melted over a clear fire. Let the patient (if an adult) take two tablespoonfuls of the clarified remainder, twice or thrice within the day. This has never failed to effect a cure, and in many cases it has been almost instantaneous. 3. In diseases of this kind the Indians use the roots and leaves of the blackberry bush—- a decoction of which, in hot water, well boiled down, is taken in doses of a gill before each meal, and before retiring to bed. It is an almost infallible cure. 4. Beat one egg in a teacup; add one tablespoonful of loaf sugar and half a teaspoonful of ground spice; fill the cup with sweet milk. Give the patient one tablespoonful once in ten minutes until relieved. 5. Take one tablespoonful of common salt, and mix it, with two tablespoonfuls of vinegar and pour upon it a half pint of water, either hot or cold (only let it be taken cool.) A wine glass full of this mixture in the above proportions, taken every half hour, will he found quite efficacious in curing dysentery. If the stomach be nauseated, a wine-glass full taken every hour will suffice. For a child, the quantity should be a teaspoonful of salt and one of vinegar in a teacupful of water.
DROPSY.—Take the leaves of a currant bush and make into tea, drink it.
CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.—- The following singular means of curing habitual drunkenness is employed by a Russian physician. Dr. Schreiber, of Brzese Litewski: It consists in confining the drunkard in a room, and in furnishing him at discretion with his favorite spirit diluted with two-thirds of water; as much wine, beer and coffee as he desires, but containing one-third of spirit: all the food—the bread, meat, and the legumes are steeped in spirit and water. The poor devil is continually drunk and dort. On the fifth day of this regime he has an extreme disgust for spirit; he earnestly requests other diet: but his desire must not be yielded to until the poor wretch no longer desires to eat or drink: he is then certainly cured of his penchant for drunkenness. He acquires such a disgust for brandy or other spirits that he is ready to vomit at the very sight of it.
CURE FOR DYSPEPSIA.—1. Take bark of white poplar root, boil it thick, and add a little spirit, and then lay it on the stomach.
2. Take wintergreen and black cherry-tree bark and yellow dock: put into two quarts of water; boil down to three pints; take two or three glasses a day.
Here are two remedies for dyspepsia, said by those who "have tried them" to be infallible. 1. Eat onions. 2. Take two parts of well-dried and pounded pods of red pepper, mixed with one part of ground mustard, and sift it over everything you eat or drink.
HOW TO CURE EARACHE.—Take a small piece of cotton batting or cotton wool, make a depression in the center with the finger, and then fill it up with as much ground pepper as will rest on a five-cent piece; gather it into a ball and tie it up; dip the ball into sweet oil and insert it in the ear, covering the latter with cotton wool, and use a bandage or cap to retain it in its place. Almost instant relief will be experienced; and the application is so gentle that an infant, will not get injured by it, but experience relief as well as adults. Roast a piece of lean mutton, squeeze out the juice and drop it info the ear as hot as it can be borne. Roast an onion and put into the ear as hot as it can be borne.
HOW TO CURE ERYSIPELAS.—Dissolve five ounces of salt in one pint of good brandy and take two tablespoonfuls three times per day.
CURE FOR INFLAMED EYES.—Pour boiling water on alder flowers, and steep them like tea; when cold, put three or four drops of laudanum into a small glass of the alder-tea, and let the mixture run into the eyes two or three times a day, and the eyes will become perfectly strong in the course of a week.
CURE FOR WEEPING EYES.—Wash the eyes in chamomile tea night and morning.
EYES, GRANULAR INFLAMMATION.—A prominent oculist says that the contagious Egyptian or granular inflammation of the eyes is spreading throughout the country, and that he has been able in many, and indeed in a majority of cases, to trace the disease to what are commonly called rolling towels. Towels of this kind are generally found in country hotels and the dwellings of the working classes, and, being thus used by nearly every one, are made the carriers of one of the most troublesome diseases of the eye. This being the case, it is urgently recommended that the use of these rolling towels be discarded, and thus one of the special vehicles for the spread of a most dangerous disorder of the eyes—one by which thousands of workingmen are annually deprived of their means of support—will no longer exist.
CURE FOR STY IN EYE.—Bathe frequently with warm water. When the sty bursts, use an ointment composed of one part of citron ointment and four of spermaceti, well rubbed together, and smear along the edge of the eye-lid.
CURE FOR FELONS.—1. Stir one-half teaspoonful of water into an ounce of Venice turpentine until the mixture appears like granulated honey. Wrap a good coating of it around the finger with a cloth. If the felon is only recent, the pain will be removed in six hours.
2. As soon as the part begins to swell, wrap it with a cloth saturated thoroughly with the tincture of lobelia. An old physician says, that he has known this to cure scores of cases, and that it never fails if applied in season.
CURE FOR FEVER AND AGUE.—Take of cloves and cream of tartar each one-half ounce, and one ounce of Peruvian bark. Mix in a small quantity of tea, and take it on well days, in such quantities as the stomach will bear.
CURE FOR FEVER SORES.—Take of hoarhound, balm, sarsaparilla, loaf sugar, aloes, gum camphor, honey, spikenard, spirits of turpentine, each two ounces. Dose, one tablespoonful, three mornings, missing three; and for a wash, make a strong tea of sumach, washing the affected parts frequently, and keeping the bandage well wet.
CURE FOR FITS.—Take of tincture of fox-glove, ten drops at each time twice a day, and increase one drop at each time as long as the stomach will bear it, or it causes a nauseous feeling.
GLYCERINE CREAM.—Receipt for chapped lips: Take of spermaceti, four drachms; white wax, one drachm; oil of almonds, two troy ounces; glycerine, one troy ounce. Melt the spermaceti, wax and oil together, and when cooling stir in glycerine and perfume.
GLYCERINE LOTION.—For softening the skin of the face and hands, especially during the commencement of cold weather, and also for allaying the irritation caused by the razor: Triturate, four and a half grains of cochineal with one and a half fluid ounces of boiling water, adding gradually; then add two and a half fluid ounces of alcohol. Also make an emulsion of eight drops of ottar of roses with thirty grains of gum arabic and eight fluid ounces of water; then add three fluid ounces of glycerine, and ten fluid drachms of quince mucilage. Mix the two liquids.
FLESHWORMS.—These specks, when they exist in any number, are a cause of much unsightliness. They are minute corks, if we may use the term, of coagulated lymp, which close the orifices of some of the pores or exhalent vessels of the skin. On the skin immediately adjacent to them being pressed with the finger nails, these bits of coagulated lymph will come from it in a vermicular form. They are vulgarly called "flesh worms," many persons fancying them to be living creatures. These may be got rid of and prevented from returning, by washing with tepid water, by proper friction with a towel, and by the application of a little cold cream. The longer these little piles are permitted to remain in the skin the more firmly they become fixed; and after a time, when they lose their moisture they are converted into long bony spines as dense as bristles, and having much of that character. They are known by the name of spotted achne. With regard to local treatment, the following lotions are calculated to be serviceable: 1. Distilled rose water, 1 pint; sulphate of zinc, 20 to 60 grains. Mix. 2. Sulphate of copper, 20 grains; rosewater, 4 ounces; water, 12 ounces. Mix. 3. Oil of sweet almonds, 1 ounce; fluid potash, 1 drachm. Shake well together and then add rose-water, 1 ounce; pure water, 6 ounces. Mix. The mode of using these remedies is to rub the pimples for some minutes with a rough towel, and then dab them with the lotion. 4. Wash the face twice a day with warm water, and rub dry with a coarse towel. Then with a soft towel rub in a lotion made of two ounces of white brandy, one ounce of cologne, and one-half ounce of liquor potassa.
HOW TO REMOVE FRECKLES.—Freckles; so persistently regular in their annual return, have annoyed the fair sex from time immemorial, and various means have been devised to eradicate them, although thus far with no decidedly satisfactory results. The innumerable remedies in use for the removal of these vexatious intruders, are either simple and harmless washes, such as parsley or horseradish water, solutions of borax, etc., or injurious nostrums, consisting principally of lead and mercury salts.
If the exact cause of freckles were known, a remedy for them might be found. A chemist in Moravia, observing the bleaching effect of mercurial preparations, inferred that the growth of a local parasitical fungus was the cause of the discoloration of the skin, which extended and ripened its spores in the warmer season. Knowing that sulpho-carbolate of zinc is a deadly enemy to all parasitic vegetation (itself not being otherwise injurious), he applied this salt for the purpose of removing the freckles. The compound consists of two parts of sulpho-carbolate of zinc, twenty-five parts of distilled glycerine, twenty-five parts of rose-water, and five parts of scented alcohol, and is to be applied twice daily for from half an hour to an hour, then washed off with cold water. Protection against the sun by veiling and other means is recommended, and in addition, for persons of pale complexion, some mild preparation of iron.
GRAVEL.—1. Make a strong tea of the low herb called heart's ease, and drink freely. 2. Make of Jacob's ladder a strong tea, and drink freely. 3. Make of bean leaves a strong tea, and drink freely.
WASH FOR THE HAIR.—Castile soap, finely shaved, one teaspoonful; spirits of hartshorn, one drachm; alcohol, five ounces; cologne water and bay rum, in equal quantities enough to make eight ounces. This should be poured on the head, followed by warm water (soft water); the result will be, on washing, a copious lather and a smarting sensation to the person operated on. Rub this well into the hair. Finally, rinse with warm water, and afterwards with cold water. If the head is very much clogged with dirt, the hair will come out plentifully, but the scalp will become white and perfectly clean.
HAIR RESTORATIVE.—Take of castor oil, six fluid ounces; alcohol, twenty-six fluid ounces. Dissolve. Then add tincture of cantharides (made with strong alcohol), one fluid ounce; essence of jessamine (or other perfume), one and a half fluid ounces.
CURE FOR HEARTBURN.—Sal volatile combined with camphor is a splendid remedy.
SICK HEADACHE.—Take a teaspoonful of powdered charcoal in molasses every morning, and wash it down with a little tea, or drink half a glass of raw rum or gin, and drink freely of mayweed tea.
HEADACHE.—Dr. Silvers, of Ohio, in the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, recommends ergot in headache, especially the nervous or sick headache. He says it will cure a larger proportion of cases than any other remedy. His theory of its action is that it lessens the quantity of blood in the brain by contracting the muscular fibres of the arterial walls. He gives ten to twenty drops of the fluid extract, repeated every half hour till relief is obtained, or four or five doses used. In other forms of disease, where opium alone is contra-indicated, its bad effects are moderated, he says, by combining it with ergot.
HEADACHE DROPS.—For the cure of nervous, sun, and sick headache, take two quarts of alcohol, three ounces of Castile soap, one ounce camphor, and two ounces ammonia. Bathe forehead and temples.
HIVE SYRUP.—Put one ounce each of squills and seneca snake-root into one pint of water; boil down to one-half and strain. Then add one-half pound of clarified honey containing twelve grains tartrate of antimony. Dose for a child, ten drops to one teaspoonful, according to age. An excellent remedy for croup.
HOW TO CLEAN THE HAIR.—From the too frequent use of oils in the hair, many ladies destroy the tone and color of their tresses. The Hindoos have a way of remedying this. They take a hand basin filled with cold water, and have ready a small quantity of pea flour. The hair is in the first place submitted to the operation of being washed in cold water, a handful of the pea flour is then applied to the head and rubbed into the hair for ten minutes at least, the servant adding fresh water at short intervals, until it becomes a perfect lather. The whole head is then washed quite clean with copious supplies of the aqueous fluid, combed, and afterwards rubbed dry by means of coarse towels. The hard and soft brush is then resorted to, when the hair will be found to be wholly free from all encumbering oils and other impurities, and assume a glossy softness, equal to the most delicate silk. This process tends to preserve the tone and natural color of the hair, which is so frequently destroyed by the too constant use of caustic cosmetics.
HOW TO SOFTEN HANDS.—After cleansing the hands with soap, rub them well with oatmeal while wet.
HOW TO REMOVE STAINS FROM HANDS.—Damp the hands first in water, then rub them with tartaric acid, or salt of lemons, as you would with soap; rinse them and rub them dry. Tartaric acid, or salt of lemons, will quickly remove stains from white muslin or linen. Put less than half a teaspoonful of salt or acid into a tablespoonful of water; wet the stain with it, and lay it in the sun for an hour; wet it once or twice with cold water during the time; if this does not quite remove it, repeat the acid water, and lay it in the sun.
HOW TO WHITEN HANDS.—1. Stir 1/4 of a pound of Castile soap, and place it in a jar near the fire, pour over it 1/2 pint of alcohol; when the soap is dissolved and mixed with the spirit, add 1 ounce of glycerine, the same of oil of almonds, with a few drops of essence of violets, or ottar of roses, then pour it into moulds to cool for use. 2. A wineglassful of eau-de-cologne, and one of lemon-juice, two cakes of broken Windsor soap, mixed well together, when hard, will form an excellent substance.
HOW TO CURE SCURF IN THE HEAD.—A simple and effectual remedy. Into a pint of water drop a lump of fresh quick lime, the size of a walnut; let it stand all night, then pour the water off clear from the sediment or deposit, add 1/4 of a pint of the best vinegar, and wash the head with the mixture. Perfectly harmless; only wet the roots of the hair.
HOW TO CURE CHAPPED LIPS.—Take 2 ounces of white wax, 1 ounce of spermaceti, 4 ounces of oil of almonds, 2 ounces of honey, 1/4 of an ounce of essence of bergamot, or any other scent. Melt the wax and spermaceti; then add the honey, and melt all together, and when hot add the almond oil by degrees, stirring till cold. 2. Take oil of almonds 3 ounces; spermaceti 1/2 ounce; virgin rice, 1/2 ounce. Melt these together over a slow fire, mixing with them a little powder of alkane root to color it. Keep stirring till cold, and then add a few drops of the oil of rhodium. 3. Take oil of almonds, spermaceti, white wax, and white sugar candy, equal parts. These form a good, white lip salve.
HOW TO REMOVE MOTH PATCHES.—Wash the patches with solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times during the day for two days, or until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours. After the process wash with some nice toilet soap, and the skin will be left nice, smooth and clear of patches. HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THE NAILS.—The nails should be kept clean by the daily use of the nail brush and soap and water. After wiping the hands, but while they are still soft from the action of the water, gently push back the skin which is apt to grow over the nails, which will not only preserve them neatly rounded, but will prevent the skin from cracking around their roots (nail springs), and becoming sore. The points of the nail should be pared at least once a week; biting them should be avoided.
HOW TO CURE HICCOUGH.—A convulsive motion of the diaphragm and parts adjacent. The common causes are flatuency, indigestion, acidity and worms. It may usually be removed by the exhibition of warm carminatives, cordials, cold wafer, weak spirits, camphor julep, or spirits of sal volatile. A sudden fright or surprise will often produce the like effect. An instance is recorded of a delicate young lady that was troubled with hiccough for some months, and who was reduced to a state of extreme debility from the loss of sleep occasioned thereby, who was cured by a fright, after medicines and topical applications had failed. A pinch of snuff, a glass of cold soda-water, or an ice-cream, will also frequently remove this complaint.
HOW TO CURE HOARSENESS.—Make a strong tea of horse-radish and yellow dock root, sweetened with honey and drink freely.
REMEDIES FOR HOARSENESS.—Take one drachm of freshly scraped horse-radish root, to be infused with four ounces of water in a close vessel for three hours, and made into a syrup, with double its quantity of vinegar. A teaspoonful has often proved effectual.
HOW TO CURE HUMORS.—Take equal parts of saffron and seneca snake root, make a strong tea, drink one half-pint a day, and this will drive out all humors from the system.
HOW TO CURE HYSTERICS.—Take the leaves of motherwort and thoroughwort, and the bark of poplar root; equal parts. Mix them in molasses, and take four of them when the first symptoms of disorder are felt, and they will effectually check it.
HOW TO CURE BARBER'S ITCH.—Moisten the parts affected with saliva (spittle) and rub it over thoroughly three times a day with the ashes of a good Havana cigar. This is a simple remedy, yet it has cured the most obstinate cases.
ITCH OINTMENT.—1. Take lard, one pound; suet, one pound; sugar of lead, eight ounces; vermillion, two ounces. Mix. Scent with a little bergamot. 2. Take bichloride of mercury, one ounce; lard, one pound; suet, one pound; hydrochloride acid, one and a half ounces. Melt and well mix, and when perfectly cold, stir in essence of lemon, four drachms; essence of bergamot, one drachm. 3. Take powdered chloride of lime, one ounce; lard, one pound. Mix well, then add essence of lemon, two drachms. 4. Take bichloride of mercury, one part; lard, fifteen parts. Mix well together. 5. Take white precipitate, one part; lard, twelve parts. Mix. A portion of either of these ointments must be well rubbed on the parts affected, night and morning.
HOW TO CURE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH.—1. Use plenty of castile soap and water, and then apply freely iodide of sulphur ointment; or take any given quantity of simple sulphur ointment and color it to a light brown or chocolate color with the subcarbonate of iron, and then perfume it. Apply this freely, and if the case should be a severe one, administer mild alteratives in conjunction with the outward application. 2. The sulphur bath is a good remedy for itch or any other kind of skin diseases. Leprosy (the most obstinate of all) has been completely cured by it, and the common itch only requires two or three applications to completely eradicate it from the system. 3. Benzine, it is said, will effect a complete cure for scabies in the course of half to three-quarters of an hour, after which the patient should take a warm bath from twenty to thirty minutes.
HOW TO CURE JAUNDICE.—1. Take the whites of two hen's eggs, beat them up well in a gill of water; take of this a little every morning; it will soon do good. It also creates an appetite, and strengthens the stomach. 2. Take of black cherry-tree bark, two ounces; blood root and gold thread, each half an ounce; put in a pint of brandy. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful morning and night.
HOW TO CURE STIFFENED JOINTS.—Take of the bark of white oak and sweet apple trees, equal parts; boil them down to a thick substance,
and then add the same quantity of goose-grease or oil, simmer all together, and then rub it on the parts warm.
HOW TO CURE KIDNEY DISEASE.—Equal parts of the oil of red cedar and the oil of spearmint.
HOW TO CURE LAME BACK.—Take the berries of red cedar and allow them to simmer in neatsfoot oil, and use as an ointment.
HOW TO KILL LICE.—All kinds of lice and their nits may be got rid of by washing with a simple decoction of stavesacre (Delphinium staphisagria), or with a lotion made with the bruised seed in vinegar, or with the tincture, or by rubbing in a salve made with the seeds and four times their weight of lard very carefully beaten together. The acetic solution and the tincture are the cleanliest and most agreeable preparations, but all are equally efficacious in destroying both the creatures and their eggs, and even in relieving the intolerable itching which their casual presence leaves behind on many sensitive skins. The alkaloid delphinia may also be employed, but possesses no advantage except in the preparation of an ointment, when from any reason that form of application should be preferred.
RHEUMATIC LINIMENT.—Olive oil, spirits of camphor and chloroform, of each two ounces; sassafras oil, 1 drachm. Add the oil of sassafras to the olive oil, then the spirits of camphor, and shake well before putting in the chloroform; shake when used, and keep it corked, as the chloroform evaporates very fast if it is left open. Apply three or four times daily, rubbing in well, and always toward the body.
SORE THROAT LINIMENT.—Gum camphor, two ounces; castile soap, shaved fine, one drachm; oil of turpentine and oil of origanum, each one-half ounce; opium, one-fourth of an ounce; alcohol, one pint. In a week or ten days they will be fit for use. Bathe the parts freely two or three times daily until relief is obtained.
A WONDERFUL LINIMENT.—Two ounces oil of spike, two ounces origanum, two ounces hemlock, two ounces wormwood, four ounces sweet oil, two ounces spirit of ammonia, two ounces gum camphor, two ounces spirits turpentine. Add one quart strong alcohol. Mix well together, and bottle tight. This is an unequaled horse liniment, and of the best ever made for human ailments such as rheumatism, sprains, etc.
HOW TO CURE SORE LIPS.—Wash the lips with a strong tea, made from the bark of the white oak.
LIVER COMPLAINT.—Make a strong tea of syrup of burdock, wormwood and dandelion, equal parts, and drink freely.
LOCK JAW.—It is said that the application of warm lye, made of ashes as strong as possible, to a wounded part, will prevent a locked jaw; if a foot or hand, immerse in it; if another part of the body, bathe with flannels wrung out of the warm lye.
MUMPS.—This disease, most common among children, begins with soreness and stiffness in the side of the neck. Soon a swelling of the parotid gland takes place, which is painful, and continues to increase for four or five days, sometimes making it difficult to swallow, or open the mouth. The swelling sometimes comes on one side at a time, but commonly upon both. There is often heat, and sometimes fever, with a dry skin, quick pulse, furred tongue, constipated bowls, and scanty and high-colored urine. The disease is contagious. The treatment is very simple—a mild diet, gentle laxative, occasional hot fomentations, and wearing a piece of flannel round the throat.
HOW TO PREVENT INGROWING NAILS.—If the nail of your toe be hard, and apt to grow round, and into the corners of your toe, take a piece of broken glass and scrape the top very thin; do this whenever you cut your nails, and by constant use it makes the corners fly up and grow flat, so that it is impossible they should give you any pain.
HOW TO WHITEN NAILS.—The best wash for whitening the nails is two drachms of diluted sulphuric acid, one drachm of tincture of myrrh, added to four ounces of spring water; first cleanse the hands, and then apply the wash.
SURE CURE FOR NEURALGIA.—1. Fill a tight-top thimble with cotton wool, and drop on it a few drops of strong spirits of hartshorn. The open mouth of the thimble is then applied over the seat of pain for a minute or two, until the skin is blistered. The skin is then rubbed off, and upon the denuded surface a small quantity of morphia (one-fourth grain) is applied. This affords almost instant relief. A second application of the morphia, if required, is to be preceded by first rubbing off the new formation that has sprung up over the former blistered surface.
2. Dr. J. Knox Hodge recommends the following as an application which will relieve facial or any other neuralgia almost instantaneously: Albumen of egg, one drachm; rhigolene, four ounces; oil of peppermint, two ounces; colodion and chloroform, each one ounce. Mix. Agitate occasionally for twenty-four hours, and by gelatinization a beautiful and semi-solidified, opodeldoc-looking compound results, which will retain its consistency and hold the ingredients intimately blended for months. Apply by smart friction with the hand, or gently with a soft brush or mop along the course of the nerve involved.
3. Mix one and one-half drachms iodide of potash, fifteen grains of quinine and one ounce ginger syrup, and two and a half ounces water. Dose, a tablespoonful every three hours.
4. OF THE STOMACH.—Take of distilled water of cherry laurel, five parts; muriate of morphia, one-tenth part. Mix and dissolve. One drop on a lump of sugar immediately before meals.
OINTMENT FOR SORE NIPPLES.—Glycerine, rose water and tannin, equal weights, rubbed together into an ointment, is very highly recommended for sore or cracked nipples.
GLYCERINE OINTMENT.—Melt together spermaceti, two drachms; white wax, one-half drachm; oil of sweet almonds, two ounces, and then add glycerine, one ounce, and stir briskly until cool. An admirable application for chapped hands, etc.
OINTMENT FOR ITCH.—White precipitate, fifteen grains; saltpetre, one-half drachm; flour of sulphur, one drachm; Mix well with lard, two ounces. Long celebrated for the cure of itch.
SULPHUR OINTMENT.—Flour of sulphur, eight ounces; oil of bergamot, two drachms; lard, one pound. Rub freely three times a day, for itch.
OINTMENT FOR PILES.—Tannin, two drachms; water, two fluid drachms; triturate together, and add lard, one and a half drachms. An excellent application for piles.
OINTMENT FOR HEMORRHOIDS.—Sulphate of morphia, three grains; extract of stramonia, thirty grains; olive oil, one drachm; carbonate of lead, sixty grains; lard, three drachms.
PAINS.—1. Steep marigold in good cider vinegar and frequently wash the affected parts. This will afford speedy relief.
2. Take half a pound of tar and the same quantity of tobacco, and boil them down separately to a thick substance; then simmer them together. Spread a plaster and apply it to the affected parts, and it will afford immediate relief.
PAINTERS' COLIC.—Make of tartaric acid a syrup similar to that of lemon syrup; add a sufficient quantity of water, and drink two or three glasses a day.
INSTANTANEOUS PAIN-KILLER.—Another and even more instant cure of pain is made as follows: Take aqua-ammonia, sulphuric ether and alcohol, equal parts, and apply over the pain.
HOW TO CURE PIMPLES.—Take a teaspoonful of the tincture of gum guaiacum and one teaspoonful of vinegar; mix well and apply to the affected parts.
POOR MAN'S PLASTER.—Melt together beeswax, one ounce; tar, three ounces; resin, three ounces, and spread on paper or muslin.
RHEUMATIC PLASTER.—One-fourth pound of resin and one-fourth pound of sulphur; melt by a slow fire, and add one ounce of Cayenne pepper and one-fourth of an ounce of camphor gum; stir well till mixed, and temper with neatsfoot oil.
STRENGTHENING PLASTER.—Litharge plasters, twenty-four parts; white resin, six parts; yellow wax and olive oil, of each three parts, and red oxide of iron, eight parts. Let the oxide be rubbed with the oil, and the other ingredients added melted, and mix the whole well together. The plaster, after being spread over the leather, should be cut into strips two inches wide and strapped firmly around the joint.
MUSTARD PLASTERS.—It is stated that in making a mustard plaster, no water whatever should be used, but the mustard mixed with the white of an egg; the result will be a plaster that will "draw" perfectly, but will not produce a blister even upon the skin of an infant, no matter how long it is allowed to remain upon the part.
BREAD AND MILK POULTICE.—Take stale bread in crumbs, pour boiling sweet milk, or milk and water over it, and simmer till soft, stirring it well; then take it from the fire, and gradually stir in a little glycerine or sweet oil, so as to render the poultice pliable when applied.
LINSEED POULTICE.—Take of linseed, powdered, four ounces; hot water sufficient, mix and stir well with a spoon, until of suitable consistence. A little oil should be added, and some smeared over the surface as well, to prevent its getting hard. A very excellent poultice, suitable for many purposes.
SPICE POULTICE.—Powdered cinnamon, cloves and Cayenne pepper, of each two ounces; rye meal, or flour, spirits and honey, of each sufficient to make of suitable consistence.
QUINSY.—This is an inflammation of the tonsils, or common inflammatory sore throat; commences with a slight feverish attack, with considerable pain and swelling of the tonsils, causing some difficulty in swallowing; as the attack advances these symptoms become more intense, there is headache, thirst, a painful sense of tension, and acute darting pains in the ears. The attack is generally brought on by exposure to cold, and lasts from five to seven days, when it subsides naturally, or an abscess may form in tonsils and burst, or the tonsil may remain enlarged, the inflammation subsiding.
TREATMENT.—The patient should remain in a warm room, the diet chiefly milk and good broths, some cooling laxative and diaphoretic medicine may be given; but the greatest relief will be found in the frequent
inhalation of the steam of hot water through an inhaler, or in the old-fashioned way, through the spout of a teapot.
OTHER REMEDIES FOR RHEUMATISM.—1. Bathe the parts affected with water in which potatoes have been boiled, as hot as can be borne, just before going to bed; by morning it will be much relieved, if not removed. One application of this simple remedy has cured the most obstinate of rheumatic pains. 2. Half an ounce of pulverized salt petre put in half a pint of sweet oil; bathe the parts affected, and a sound cure will be speedily effected. 3. Rheumatism has frequently been cured by a persistent use of lemon juice, either undiluted or in the form of lemonade. Suck half a lemon every morning before breakfast, and occasionally during the day, and partake of lemonade when thirsty in preference to any other drink. If severely afflicted a physician should be consulted, but, in all cases, lemon juice will hasten the cure. 4. By the valerian bath, made simply by taking one pound of valerian root, boiling it gently for about a quarter of an hour in one gallon of water, straining and adding the strained liquid to about twenty gallons of water in an ordinary bath. The temperature should be about ninety-eight degrees, and the time of immersion from twenty minutes to half an hour. Pains must be taken to dry the patient perfectly upon getting out of the bath. If the inflammation remain refractory in any of the joints, linseed meal poultices should be made with a strong decoction of valerian root and applied.
HOW TO CURE RING-WORM.—To one part sulphuric acid, add sixteen to twenty parts water. Use a brush and feather, and apply it to the parts night and morning. A few dressings will generally cure. If the solution is too strong and causes pain, dilute it with water, and if the irritation is excessive, rub on a little oil or other softening application, but always avoid the use of soap.
Or, wash the head with soft soap every morning, and apply the following lotion every night: One-half drachm of sub-carbonate of soda dissolved in one gill of vinegar.
HEALING SALVE.—Sweet oil, three quarts; resin, three ounces; beeswax, three ounces. Melt together; then add powdered red lead, two pounds; heat all these together and when nearly cold add a piece of camphor as large as a nutmeg. Good for burns, etc.
SALT RHEUM.—1. Make a strong tea of elm root bark; drink the tea freely, and wash the affected part in the same. 2. Take one ounce of blue flag root, steep it in half a pint of gin; take a teaspoonful three times a day, morning, noon and night, and wash with the same. 3. Take one ounce of oil of tar, one drachm of oil of checker berry; mix. Take from five to twenty drops morning and night as the stomach will bear.
BLEEDING OF THE STOMACH.—Take a teaspoonful of camomile tea every ten minutes until the bleeding stops.
SICKNESS OF STOMACH.—Drink three or four times a day of the steep made from the bark of white poplar roots.
SUNBURN AND TAN.—1. Take two drachms of borax, one drachm of Roman alum, one drachm of camphor, half an ounce of sugar candy, and a pound of ox-gall. Mix, and stir well for ten minutes or so, and repeat this stirring three or four times a day for a fortnight, till it appears clear and transparent. Strain through blotting paper, and bottle up for use. 2. Milk of almonds made thus: Take of blanched bitter almonds half an ounce, soft water half a pint; make an emulsion by beating the almonds and water together, strain through a muslin cloth, and it is made. 3. A preparation composed of equal parts of olive oil and lime water is also an excellent remedy for sunburn.
TO PRODUCE SWEAT.—Take of nitre, one-half drachm; snake's head (herb), saffron, camphor, snake-root, seneca, bark of sassafras root, each one ounce; ipecac, and opium, each one half ounce; put the above in three quarts of Holland gin, and take a tablespoonful in catnip tea every few minutes, till a sweat is produced.
TEETHING.—Young children whilst cutting their first set of teeth often suffer severe constitutional disturbance. At first there is restlessness and peevishness, with slight fever, but not infrequently these are followed by convulsive fits, as they are commonly called, which depends on the brain becoming irritated; and sometimes under this condition the child is either cut off suddenly, or the foundation of serious mischief to the brain is laid. The remedy, or rather the safeguard, against these frightful consequences is trifling, safe, and almost certain, and consists merely in lancing the gum covering the tooth which is making its making its way through. When teething is about it may be known by the spittle constantly driveling from the mouth and wetting the frock. The child has its fingers in its month, and bites hard any substance it can get hold of. If the gums be carefully looked at, the part where the tooth is pressing up is swollen and redder than usual; and if the finger be pressed on it the child shrinks and cries, showing that the gum is tender. When these symptoms occur, the gum should be lanced, and sometimes the tooth comes through the next day, if near the surface; but if not so far advanced the cut heals and a scar forms, which is thought by some objectionable, as rendering the passage of the tooth more difficult. This, however, is untrue, for the scar will give way much more easily than the uncut gum. If the tooth does not come through after two or three days, the lancing may be repeated; and this is more especially needed if the child be very fractious, and seems in much pain. Lancing the gums is further advantageous, because it empties the inflamed part of its blood, and so relieves the pain and inflammation. The relief children experience in the course of two or three hours from the operation is often very remarkable, as they almost immediately become lively and cheerful.
WASH FOR TEETH AND GUMS.—The teeth should be washed night and morning, a moderately small and soft brush being used; after the morning ablution, pour on a second tooth-brush, slightly dampened, a little of the following lotion: Carbolic acid, 20 drops; spirits of wine, 2 drachms; distilled water, 6 ounces. After using this lotion a short time the gums become firmer and less tender, and impurity of the breath (which is most commonly caused by bad teeth), will be removed. It is a great mistake to use hard tooth-brushes, or to brush the teeth until the gums bleed.
TETTER.—After a slight feverish attack, lasting two or three days, clusters of small, transparent pimples, filled sometimes with a colorless, sometimes with a brownish lymph, appear on the cheeks or forehead, or on the extremities, and at times on the body. The pimples are about the size of a pea, and break after a few days, when a brown or yellow crust is formed over them, which falls off about the tenth day, leaving the skin red and irritable. The eruption is attended with heat; itching, tingling, fever, and restlessness, especially at night. Ringworm is a curious form of tetter, in which the inflamed patches assume the form of a ring.
TREATMENT—Should consist of light diet, and gentle laxatives. If the patient be advanced in life, and feeble, a tonic will be desirable. For a wash, white vitriol, 1 drachm; rose-water, 3 ounces, mixed; or an ointment made of alder-flower ointment, 1 ounce; oxide of zinc, 1 drachm.
TO REMOVE TAN.—Tan may be removed from the face by mixing magnesia in soft water to the consistency of paste, which should then be spread on the face and allowed to remain a minute or two. Then wash off with Castile soap suds, and rinse with soft water.
CARE OF THE TEETH.—The mouth has a temperature of 98 degrees, warmer than is ever experienced in the shade in the latitude of New England. It is well known that if beef, for example, be exposed in the shade during the warmest of our summer days, it will very soon decompose. If we eat beef for dinner, the particles invariably find their way into the spaces between the teeth. Now, if these particles of beef are not removed, they will frequently remain till they are softened by decomposition. In most mouths this process of decomposition is in constant progress. Ought we to be surprised that the gums and teeth against which these decomposing or putrefying masses lie should become subjects of disease?
How shall our teeth be preserved? The answer is very simple—keep them very clean. How shall they be kept clean? Answer—By a toothpick, rinsing with water, and the daily use of a brush.
The toothpick should be a quill, not because the metalic picks injure the enamel, but because the quill pick is so flexible it fits into all the irregularities between the teeth. Always after using the toothpick the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed. If warm water be not at hand, cold may be used, although warm is much better. Closing the lips, with a motion familiar to all, everything may be thoroughly rinsed from the mouth.
Every morning (on rising), and every evening (on going to bed), the tooth-brush should be used, and the teeth, both outside and inside, thoroughly brushed. |
|