Part 52 (1/2)

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.]

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 winegla.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, of tannic acid, which can be made at any drug store.

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.

SCARLET FEVER.--Cold water compress on the throat. Fats and oils rubbed on hands and feet. The temperature of the room should be about 68 degrees Fahr., and all draughts avoided. Mustard baths for retrocession of the rash and to bring it out. Diet: ripe fruit, toast, gruel, beef, tea and milk. Stimulants are useful to counteract depression of the vital forces.

FALSE MEASLES OR ROSE RASH.--It requires no treatment except hygienic.

Keep the bowels open. Nouris.h.i.+ng diet, and if there is itching, moisten the skin with five per cent. solution of aconite or solution of starch and water.

BILIOUS ATTACKS.--Drop doses of muriatic acid in a wine gla.s.s of water every four hours, or the following prescription: Bicarbonate of soda, one drachm; Aromatic spirits of ammonia, two drachms; Peppermint water, four ounces. Dose: Take a teaspoonful every four hours.

DIARRHOEA.--The following prescription is generally all that will be necessary: acetate of lead, eight grains; gum arabic, two drachms; acetate of morphia, one grain; and cinnamon water, eight ounces. Take a teaspoonful every three hours.

Be careful not to eat too much food. Some consider, the best treatment is to fast, and it is a good suggestion. Patients should keep quiet and have the room of a warm and even temperature.

VOMITING.--Ice dissolved in the mouth, often cures vomiting when all remedies fail. Much depends on the diet of persons liable to such attacts; this should be easily digestible food, taken often and in small quant.i.ties. Vomiting can often be arrested by applying a mustard paste over the region of the stomach. It is not necessary to allow it to remain until the parts are blistered, but it may be removed when the part becomes thoroughly red, and reapplied if required after the redness has disappeared. One of the secrets to relieve vomiting is to give the stomach perfect rest, not allowing the patient even a gla.s.s of water, as long as the tendency remains to throw it up again.