Paregoric 2 to 5 drops
Syrup Ipecac 3 drops
Mix.
Give every three hours, according to age, one to three hours for a child
two years old.
3. For Irritation of the Skin.--Sponge once a day with water at 100
degrees F. containing a little alcohol or a pinch of sodium bicarbonate or
soda.
4. For Scaling.--Use ointment of benzoinated lard, combined with five per
cent of boric acid.
Diet.--The food should be light; milk, broths, and when the fever is gone
chicken and soft boiled eggs, jelly, toasted bread, crackers, cereals,
with cocoa for drink. Orange juice or lemon juice may be given in
moderation. Milk, one pint per day for every fifty pounds in weight of the
patient, during a fever sickness, is a safe and liberal allowance. Smaller
children in proportion. Mothers will be apt to give too much and it may
then prevent rest and steep. When the fever subsides you can give more
milk and some of the above foods. Water, as before stated, can be given
for the thirst quite frequently.
[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 179]
Teas.--The laity gives lots of these to bring out the rash. It seems to me
before the rash is out the patient is feverish and chilly and the skin is
dry, and a small amount of tea given every hour or two might do good
unless the patient is made warmer. There are many varieties given. Elder
blossom seems to have the call. For some time after the patient is well he
may be bothered with a cough; it better be looked after if it continues,
for there might be bronchitis or some lung trouble left and unknown.
Caution.--A person who has had the measles or German measles, should be
very careful about taking cold, for if they do they are liable to have
serious trouble, especially in the chest. It is very easy to take
bronchitis or pneumonia during and after an attack of measles. The mucous
membrane of these parts is left somewhat swollen and it remains
susceptible to disease for some time. "An ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure." Remain in the house three or four days longer than may
seem necessary and you will be paid for so doing by having good bronchial
tubes and lungs,--as good as before if you were careful during the attack.
GERMAN MEASLES.--This is an acute self-limited disease and contagious. It
has a mild fever, watery eyes, cough, sore throat and enlargement of the
glands of the neck, not seen in the common measles. It has an eruption
that may come the first day to the fourth.
Incubation Period Runs.--From fifteen to twenty days.
Rash.--Just before the rash appears there is a headache, nausea and
irritation of the bronchial tubes. The eruption is so similar to that of
measles at the outset that it is hard to differentiate between them. The
eruption in the mouth, however, is not so characteristic. Before the
appearance of the eruption, the glands on the back of the neck and angles
of the jaw may be enlarged. At the time of its appearance the glands in
the armpits and groin become enlarged to the size of a bean and bigger,
and they remain enlarged for weeks after the eruption has disappeared.
Treatment.--Similar to the measles if any is needed.
CHICKEN POX (Varicella).--This is an acute infectious disease,
characterized by a peculiar eruption. Children are the ones usually
attacked. It generally occurs before the tenth year. It is transmitted
through the atmosphere. The period of coming on is usually fourteen days,
but it may extend to nineteen days. It is perhaps the simplest and mildest
disease of childhood. It occurs but once, is contagious, is very common,
and resembles varioloid. It has a mild light fever and large vesicles
almost the size of a split pea, scattered over the body. There may be few
and there may be hundreds. They are reddish gray and appear first on the
head and face, then on the body, one crop following another on the body.
They are filled at first with a clear liquid, which soon turns yellowish,
then breaks and dries up. They leave no scar unless they are scratched or
are very large. The patient is usually well in a week, but the scars last
longer.
MOTHER'S REMEDY.--1. Chicken Pox, Catnip Tea and Soda Water for.--"Put
the patient to bed and give catnip tea. A daily bath of saleratus water is
good and the bowels should be kept open." One of the most essential things
is to keep the patient warm.
[180 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT FOR CHICKEN POX.--Exclude other children. The child
should be lightly fed and on ordinary food. Large vesicles on the face,
when yellow, should be pricked with a needle that has been boiled, then
wash them with a disinfecting lotion twice daily.
The following is a good lotion:
Boric Acid 1/2 ounce (4 teaspoonfuls)
Boiled Water 1 pint
Mix thoroughly and use twice a day on the eruption.
The child should not pick the sores on his face, as this may cause delay
in healing and leave a mark.
MUMPS (Parotitis).--This is an acute infectious disease of one or both of
the parotid glands, located at the angle of the jaw, and extending up to
the ear, and, also, to other salivary glands. It appears only once. One
attack gives immunity. It may come at any age; but appears mostly before
the age of fifteen. It comes on one side first and may pass over to the
other side in a few days, as it usually does, and gives the face a broad
appearance, under the ears, or ear, and makes chewing and swallowing
almost impossible. There is no soreness of the throat in mumps. In
well-marked cases there is considerable fever and pain. It may last from a
few days to a week. The usual length of time the disease lasts is one
week. There is no tendency to form pus, even when the face is very hard
and swollen and tender. It will occasionally leave the face and appear in
the breasts and ovaries in the females or in the testicles of the males,
and in both places it causes much pain.
Treatment.--The patient should be kept in the house and isolated in bed as
long as the symptoms last. When there is much pain, laudanum diluted
one-third with water may be applied continually with a soft warm cloth.
Oil of hyoscyamus applied twice daily to the sore parts is good if
laudanum is not used. When the swelling goes down I know of nothing as
good as a hot bean poultice, which must be changed often so as to keep
hot. Bean poultice.--Simply boil the beans in water until they are soft
and thick enough to use as a poultice. The bowels should be kept open with
salts. The food must be liquid, such as milk, soups and gruels. If there
is not much fever, soft boiled eggs and milk toast from the beginning. Do
not use vinegar, acids or astringents.
[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 181]
WHOOPING-COUGH (Pertussis).--Whooping cough is an acute specific
infectious, disease caused by a micro-organism. It is characterized in a
majority of cases by a spasmodic cough, accompanied by a so-called whoop.
It is not only infectious, but very contagious. It is propagated through
the atmosphere in schools and public places; the air of which is
contaminated with the specific agent of the disease. This agent is thought
to reside in the sputum and the secretions of the nose and air passages of
the patient. It is very contagious at the height of the attack. The sputum
of the first or catarrhal stage is thought to be highly contagious. The
sputum in the stage of decline is also thought to be capable of carrying
the disease. It prevails in all countries and climates. During the winter
and spring months it is most frequent. At times it prevails as an
epidemic. It occurs most frequently in infancy and childhood, but a person
can take it at any age. Second attacks are rare. It is most frequent
between the first and second year; next most frequent between the sixth
and twelfth month. After the fifth year the frequency diminishes up to the
tenth year, after which the disease is very infrequent. Not everyone who
is exposed contracts the disease. It seems that whooping-cough, measles,
and influenza frequently follow one another in epidemic form. This is one
of the diseases much dreaded by parents. It is very tedious and endangers
the life of weak and young children by exhaustion. It is a terrible thing
to watch one with this disease, day in and day out. It can be known by the
impetuous, continuous and frequent coughing spells, following each other
rapidly until the patient is out of breath, with a tendency to end in
vomiting. When it comes in the fall or winter months there will likely be
spasmodic coughing until summer through the usual colds contracted. Summer
is the best time to have it.
Symptoms.--There is an incubation stage, but it is hard to determine its
length. After the appearance of the symptoms there are three stages; the
catarrhal, the spasmodic, and the stage of decline.
The First Stage.--This is characterized by a cough which is more
troublesome at night. One can be suspicious, when instead of getting
better in a few days, it gets worse and more frequent, without any seeming
cause. After four or five days the cough may be accompanied by vomiting,
especially if the cough occurs after eating. There may be some bronchitis,
and if so there will be one or more degrees of fever. Fever is present as
a rule, only during the first few days, unless there is bronchitis. As the
case passes into the spasmodic or second stage, the paroxysms of coughing
last longer, the child becomes red in the face and spits up a larger
amount of mucus than in ordinary bronchitis. This period of the cough
without a whoop, may last from five to twelve days. In some cases there is
never a whoop. The child has a severe spasmodic cough, followed by
vomiting. Usually at the close of this stage the incessant cough causes
slight puffiness of the eyelids and slight bloating of the face.
[182 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Spasmodic or Second Stage.--The peculiar whoop is now present. The cough
is spasmodic. The child has distinct paroxysms of coughing which begin
with an inspiration (in-breathing) followed by several expulsive,
explosive coughs, after which there is a deep, long-drawn inspiration
which is characterized by a loud crowing called the "whoop." This paroxysm
may be followed by a number of similar ones. When the paroxysm is coming
on the face assumes an anxious expression, and the child runs to the
nearest person or to some article of furniture and grasps him or it with
both hands. It is so severe sometimes that the child will fall or claw the
air, convulsively. In the severest and most dangerous types, a convulsion
may come on in a moderate degree, the face is red or livid, the eyes bulge
and when the paroxysm ends a quantity of sticky tenacious mucus is spit
up. In other cases there is vomiting at the end of the paroxysm. There is
frequently nose-bleed. In the intervals the face is pale or bluish,
eyelids are puffy and face swollen. There is little bronchitis at this
period in the majority of cases. In some cases the number of paroxysms may
be few. There are generally quite a number during the twenty-four hours.
Stage of the Decline.--In this stage the number and severity or the
paroxysms lessen. They may subside suddenly or gradually after four to
twelve weeks. The whoop may reappear at times. The cough may persist, more
or less, for weeks after the whoop is entirely gone.
Complications.--Bronchitis is common, it may be mild or severe. It may run
into capillary bronchitis and this is dangerous.
Diagnosis.--Continued cough, getting worse and spasmodic, worse at night,
livid face when coughing, causes great suspicion as to its being
whooping-cough. The whoop will confirm it.
Mortality is quoted as twenty-five per cent during the first year. Between
first and fifth year about five per cent, from fifth to tenth year about
one per cent. Rickets, or wasting disease (marasmus) and poor hygienic
surroundings makes the outlook less favorable.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Whooping-Cough, Chestnut Leaves for.--"Steep
chestnut leaves, strain, add sugar according to amount of juice and boil
down to a syrup; give plenty of this. A friend of mine gave this to her
children. She said they recovered rapidly and the cough was not severe."
They are not the horse-chestnut leaves.
2. Whooping-Cough, Chestnut Leaves and Cream for.--"Make an infusion of
dry chestnut leaves, not too strong, season with cream and sugar, if
desired. The leaves can be purchased at a drug store in five cent
packages."