Part 48 (1/2)

BITES AND STINGS OF INSECTS.--Wash with a solution of ammonia water.

BITES OF MAD DOGS.--Apply caustic potash at once to the wound, and give enough whiskey to cause sleep.

BURNS.--Make a paste of common baking soda and water, and apply it promptly to the burn. It will quickly check the pain and inflammation.

COLD ON CHEST.--A flannel rag wrung out in boiling water and sprinkled with turpentine, laid on the chest, gives the greatest relief.

COUGH.--Boil one ounce of flaxseed in a pint of water, strain, and add a little honey, one ounce of rock candy, and the juice of three lemons. Mix and boil well. Drink as hot as possible.

SPRAINED ANKLE OR WRIST.--Wash the ankle very frequently with cold salt and water, which is far better than warm vinegar or decoction of herbs. Keep the foot as cool as possible to prevent inflammation, and sit with it elevated on a high cus.h.i.+on. Live on low diet, and take every morning some cooling medicine, such as Epsom salts. It cures in a few days.

CHILBLAINS, SPRAINS, ETC.--One raw egg well beaten, half a pint of vinegar, one ounce spirits of turpentine, a quarter of an ounce of spirits of wine, a quarter of an ounce of camphor. These ingredients to be beaten together, then put in a bottle and shaken for ten minutes, after which, to be corked down tightly to exclude the air. In half an hour it is fit for use. To be well rubbed in, two, three, or four times a day. For rheumatism in the head, to be rubbed at the back of the neck and behind the ears. In chilblains this remedy is to be used before they are broken. {349}

HOW TO REMOVE SUPERFLUOUS HAIR.--Sulphuret of a.r.s.enic, one ounce; Quicklime, one ounce; Prepared Lard, one ounce; White Wax, one ounce. Melt the Wax, add the Lard. When nearly cold, stir in the other ingredients.

Apply to the superfluous hair, allowing it to remain on from five to ten minutes; use a table-knife to shave off the hair; then wash with soap and warm water.

DYSPEPSIA CURE.--Powdered Rhubarb, two drachms; Bicarbonate of Sodium, six drachms; Fluid Extract of Gentian, three drachms; Peppermint Water, seven and a half ounces. Mix them. Dose, a teaspoonful half an hour before meals.

FOR NEURALGIA.--Tincture of Belladonna, one ounce; Tincture of Camphor, one ounce; Tincture of Arnica, one ounce; Tincture of Opium, one ounce. Mix them. Apply over the seat of the pain, and give ten to twenty drops in sweetened water every two hours.

FOR COUGHS, COLDS, ETC.--Syrup of Morphia, three ounces; Syrup of Tar, three and a half ounces; Chloroform, one troy ounce; Glycerine, one troy ounce. Mix them. Dose, a teaspoonful three or four times a day.

TO CURE HIVES.--Compound syrup of Squill, U. S., three ounces; Syrup of Ipecac, U. S., one ounce. Mix them. Dose, a teaspoonful.

TO CURE SICK HEADACHE.--Gather sumach leaves in the summer, and spread them in the sun a few days to dry. Then powder them fine, and smoke, morning and evening for two weeks, also whenever there are symptoms of approaching headache. Use a new clay pipe. If these directions are adhered to, this medicine will surely effect a permanent cure.

WHOOPING COUGH.--Dissolve a scruple of salt of tartar in a gill of water; add to it ten grains of cochineal; sweeten it with sugar. Give to an infant a quarter teaspoonful four times a day; two years old, one-half teaspoonful; from four years, a tablespoonful. Great care is required in the administration of medicines to infants. We can a.s.sure paternal inquirers that the foregoing may be depended upon.

CUT OR BRUISE.--Apply the moist surface of the inside coating or skin of the sh.e.l.l of a raw egg. It will adhere of itself, leave no scar, and heal without pain.

DISINFECTANT.--Chloride of lime should be scattered at least once a week under sinks and wherever sewer gas is likely to penetrate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE YOUNG DOCTOR.]

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COSTIVENESS.--Common charcoal is highly recommended for costiveness. It may be taken in tea- or tablespoonful, or even larger doses, according to the exigencies of the case, mixed with mola.s.ses, repeating it as often as necessary. Bathe the bowels with pepper and vinegar. Or take two ounces of rhubarb, add one ounce of rust of iron, infuse in one quart of wine. Half a winegla.s.sful every morning. Or take pulverized blood root, one drachm, pulverized rhubarb, one drachm, castile soap, two scruples. Mix. and roll into thirty-two pills. Take one, morning and night. By following these directions it may perhaps save you from a severe attack of the piles, or some other kindred disease.

TO CURE DEAFNESS.--Obtain pure pickerel oil, and apply four drops morning and evening to the ear. Great care should be taken to obtain oil that is perfectly pure.

DEAFNESS.--Take three drops of sheep's gall, warm, and drop it into the ear on going to bed. The ear must be syringed with warm soap and water in the morning. The gall must be applied for three successive nights. It is only efficacious when the deafness is produced by cold. The most convenient way of warming the gall is by holding it in a silver spoon over the flame of a light. The above remedy has been frequently tried with perfect success.

GOUT.--This is Col. Birch's recipe for rheumatic gout or acute rheumatism, commonly called in England the ”Chelsea Pensioner.” Half an ounce of nitre (saltpetre), half an ounce of sulphur, half an ounce of flour of mustard, half an ounce of Turkey rhubarb, quarter of an ounce of powdered guaic.u.m.

Mix, and take a teaspoonful every other night for three nights, and omit three nights, in a wine-gla.s.sful of cold water which has been previously well boiled.

RINGWORM.--The head is to be washed twice a day with soft soap and warm soft water; when dried the places to be rubbed with a piece of linen rag dipped in ammonia from gas tar; the patient should take a little sulphur and mola.s.ses, or some other genuine aperient, every morning; brushes and combs should be washed every day, and the ammonia kept tightly corked.

PILES.--Hamamelis, both internally or as an injection in r.e.c.t.u.m. Bathe the parts with cold water or with astringent lotions, as alum water, especially in bleeding piles. Ointment of gallic acid and calomel is of repute. The best treatment of all is, suppositories of iodoform, ergotine, or tannic acid, which can be made at any drug store. {363}

CHICKEN POX.--No medicine is usually needed, except a tea made from pleurisy root, to make the child sweat. Milk diet is the best; avoidance of animal food; careful attention to the bowels; keep cool and avoid exposure to cold.