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TREATMENT FOR POISON OAK--POISON IVY--POISON SUMACH.--Mr. Charles Morris,
of Philadelphia, who has studied the subject closely, uses, as a sovereign
remedy, frequent bathing of the affected parts in water as hot as can be
borne. If used immediately after exposure, it may prevent the eruption
appearing. If later, it allays the itching, and gradually dries up the
swellings, though, they are very stubborn after they have once appeared.
But an application every few hours keeps down the intolerable itching,
which is the most annoying feature of sumach poisoning. In addition to
this, the ordinary astringent ointments are useful, as is also that
sovereign lotion, "lead-water and laudanum." Mr. Morris adds to these a
preventive prescription of "wide-open eyes."
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 cushion. 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 Arsenic, 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 assure paternal
inquirers that the foregoing may be depended upon.
CUT OR BRUISE.--Apply the moist surface of the inside coating or skin of
the shell 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.
[Illustration: 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 molasses, 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
wineglassful 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 guaicum.
Mix, and take a teaspoonful every other night for three nights, and omit
three nights, in a wine-glassful 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 molasses, 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 rectum. 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.
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. Nourishing 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 glass 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 attacks;
this should be easily digestible food, taken often and in small quantities.
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 glass of water, as long as the tendency remains
to throw it up again.
NERVOUS HEADACHE.--Extract hyoscymus five grains, pulverized camphor five
grains. Mix. Make four pills, one to be taken when the pain is most severe
in nervous headache. Or three drops tincture nux vomica in a spoonful of
water, two or three times a day. {364}
BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE,--from whatever cause--may generally be stopped by
putting a plug of lint into the nostril; if this does not do, apply a cold
lotion to the forehead; raise the head and place both arms over the head,
so that it will rest on both hands; dip the lint plug, slightly moistened,
in some powdered gum arabic, and plug the nostrils again; or dip the plug
into equal parts of gum arabic and alum. An easier and simpler method is to
place a piece of writing paper on the gums of the upper jaw, under the
upper lip, and let it remain there for a few minutes.
BOILS.--These should be brought to a head by warm poultices of camomile
flowers, or boiled white lily root, or onion root, by fermentation with hot
water, or by stimulating plasters. When ripe they should be destroyed by a
needle or lancet. But this should not be attempted until they are
thoroughly proved.
BUNIONS may be checked in their early development by binding the joint with
adhesive plaster, and keeping it on as long as any uneasiness is felt. The
bandaging should be perfect, and it might be well to extend it round the
foot. An inflamed bunion should be poulticed, and larger shoes be worn.
Iodine 12 grains, lard or spermaceti ointment half an ounce, makes a
capital ointment for bunions. It should be rubbed on gently twice or three
times a day.
FELONS.--One table-spoonful of red lead, and one table-spoonful of castile
soap, and mix them with as much weak lye as will make it soft enough to
spread like a salve, and apply it on the first appearance of the felon, and
it will cure in ten or twelve days.
CURE FOR WARTS.--The easiest way to get rid of warts, is to pare off the
thickened skin which covers the prominent wart; cut it off by successive
layers and shave it until you come to the surface of the skin, and till you
draw blood in two or three places. Then rub the part thoroughly over with
lunar caustic, and one effective operation of this kind will generally
destroy the wart; if not, you cut off the black spot which has been
occasioned by the caustic, and apply it again; or you may apply acetic
acid, and thus you will get rid of it. Care must be taken in applying these
acids, not to rub them on the skin around the wart.
WENS.--Take the yoke of some eggs, beat up, and add as much fine salt as
will dissolve, and apply a plaster to the wen every ten hours. It cures
without pain or any other inconvenience.
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