May Take.--Soups.--Turtle or oyster soup, mutton, clam, or chicken broth,
puree of barley, rice, peas, beans, cream of celery or tomatoes, whole
beef tea; peptonized milk, gruel.
Fish.--All kinds of fresh fish boiled or broiled, oysters or clams, raw,
roasted or broiled.
Meats.--Rare roast beef or mutton, lamb chops, ham, fat bacon.
sweetbreads, poultry, game, tender steaks, hamburger steak rare.
Eggs.--Every way except fried.
Farinaceous.--Oatmeal, wheaten grits, mush, hominy, rice, whole wheat
bread, corn bread, milk toast, biscuits, muffins, gems.
Vegetables.--Potatoes baked, boiled, or creamed, string beans, spinach,
onions, asparagus, tomatoes, green peas, all well cooked, cresses,
lettuce, plain or with oil dressing, celery.
Desserts.--Farina, sago, tapioca, apple or milk pudding, floating island,
custards, baked or stewed apples with fresh cream, cooked fruits, rice
with fresh cream.
Drinks.--Fresh milk, cool, warm, or peptonized, cocoa, chocolate,
buttermilk, pure water, tea, coffee, panopepton.
Must Not Take.--Fried foods, salt fish, hashes, gravies, veal, pork,
carrots, parsnips, cabbage, beets, turnips, cucumbers, macaroni,
spaghetti, sweets, pies, pastry, sweet wines.
WHAT EVERY PERSON SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS,
WHETHER HE HAS THE DISEASE OR NOT.
Tuberculosis is caused by a germ.
Tuberculosis is communicable and preventable.
Consumption of the lungs is the most common form of tuberculosis.
Consumption of the bowels is the next most common form.
The germ causing tuberculosis leaves the body of the person who has the
disease by means of the discharges; by the sputum coughed up from the
lungs, by nasal discharge, by bowel excrement, by urine, by abscesses.
If the sputum of the consumptive is allowed to dry, its infected dust
floats in the air, and is breathed into the lungs.
[216 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
Any person breathing such air is in danger of contracting tuberculosis. It
is best not to stand near a person suffering with tuberculosis who is
coughing, because in this act finely divided droplets of saliva are thrown
from the mouth, and may be carried for a distance of three feet. These may
contain large numbers of the bacilli. They are also sometimes thrown out
in forcible speaking. The ordinary breath of a consumptive does not
contain them.
If the bowels or other discharges from the tuberculous person are not
disinfected, but are thrown into a sewer, privy, river or buried they are
a source of danger, and may pollute a source of drinking water.
Impure milk, that is, milk from a tuberculous cow or milk exposed to
infected dust is a common source of tuberculosis. Milk from suspected
sources should be boiled. The all-important thing to do to prevent
tuberculosis from spreading from one person to another, and from one part
of the body to another, is immediately to destroy all discharges from the
body of a person who has tuberculosis.
Destroy by fire or by disinfectant all sputum, all nasal discharges, all
bowel excrement, all urine as soon as discharged. For such a purpose use a
five per cent solution of carbolic acid (six and three-fourths ounces of
carbolic acid to one gallon of water).
No person, well or sick, should spit in public places or where the sputum
cannot be collected and destroyed.
Flies carry sputum and its infection to food, to your hands, your face,
clothes, the baby's bottle, from which the germs are taken into the mouth,
and thus gain access to the stomach or lungs.
Spitting on the sidewalk, on the floor, on the wall, on the grass, in the
gutter, or even into a cuspidor containing no disinfectant is a very
dangerous practice for a consumptive to indulge.
The person infected with tuberculosis should protect himself, his family,
his associates and the public by not spitting in public places, and by
promptly destroying all discharges.
The well person should defend himself by insisting that the tuberculous
person shall destroy all discharges.
Well persons should set the example of restraint and themselves refrain
from spitting promiscuously. A person may appear quite healthy and yet be
developing tuberculosis without knowing it.
Such a person, if he spits where he pleases, may be depositing infected
sputum where it can endanger the health and lives of other persons.
Do not sleep with a person who has tuberculosis, nor in the room occupied
by a tuberculous person, until that room has been thoroughly disinfected.
[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 217]
Any person is liable to contract tuberculosis, whether he is well or not.
Sickly persons, or those having bad colds, influenza bronchitis or
pneumonia or any general weakness are much more liable to contract
tuberculosis than a perfectly well or robust person. If you have a cough
that hangs on consult at once a reliable physician who has ability to
diagnose tuberculosis.
Prevention is possible; it is cheaper and easier than cure.
Any person having tuberculosis can recover from the disease if he takes
the proper course in time.
Advanced cases of tuberculosis, that is, those cases where the disease is
well developed, are the most dangerous to the public and the most
difficult to cure.
Every advanced case of tuberculosis should be in a sanatorium.
Sanatoria offers the best chance, usually the only chance, of cure to an
advanced case.
They also protect well citizens from danger of infection from advanced
stages of tuberculosis. There are fewer deaths from tuberculosis in those
localities where sanatoria are established for the care of tuberculous
persons.
One person out of every seven who die, dies from tuberculosis.
One child out of every ten dies from tuberculosis.
Homes and school-houses greatly need more fresh air supplied to their
occupants.
Day camps are city parks, vacant lots or abandoned farms where the
tuberculous persons of a community may go and spend the entire day in
rest, receiving instructions in proper hygiene and skillful treatment.
Such camps are supplied with tents, hammocks, reclining chairs, one or
more nurses, milk, eggs and other nourishment.
Dispensaries are centers of sanitary and medical instruction for local
tuberculous persons.
Every locality should establish and maintain a dispensary for the benefit
of tuberculous persons; for their instruction how to prevent the disease
from spreading, and how to conduct themselves to insure relief and cure.
Householders are required by law to report a case within their households
to the local health officers. The local health officer has certain duties
to perform under the law, and co-operation with him by the householder and
tuberculous person, works for the suppression of this disease.
Do not consider a tuberculous person an outcast, or one fit for the
pesthouse. Your crusade is against tuberculosis, not against the person
suffering from the disease.
Give the freedom of a well person to the tuberculous who is instructed and
conscientious in the observance of necessary precautions. Be very much
afraid of the tuberculous person who is ignorant or careless in the
observance of necessary precautions.
[218 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
PNEUMONIA (Lobar) Lung Fever.--Inflammation of the lungs. This is an acute
infectious disease characterized by an exudative inflammation of one or
more lobes of the lungs, with constitutional symptoms due to the
absorption of toxins (poison), the fever terminating by crisis (suddenly).
In speaking of pneumonia you frequently hear the expression "the lungs are
filling up." This is the real condition. The structures surrounding the
air cells are inflamed and from the inflamed tissues a secretion exudate
is poured out into the cells. This is expectorated, thrown out, by
coughing; but it is poured out into the cells faster than it can be spit
up and consequently it remains in some of the cells and fills them up.
The air does not get into such cells and they fill, with many others, and
make that section solid. When the patient is improving he keeps on
spitting this up, until all is out and the air cells resume their normal
work. Sometimes they remain so and we have chronic pneumonia.
Causes of Pneumonia.--Pneumonia occurs frequently as a complication of
other diseases, such as typhoid fever and measles. Yet the majority of
cases occur spontaneously. Many times the disease seems to be induced by
exposure to the cold, and there can be no doubt that such exposure does at
least promote the development of this affection. It seems, however,
probable that there is some special cause behind it without which the
exposure to cold is not sufficient to induce this disease. Pneumonia may
occur at any period of life, and is more common among males than females.
It occurs over the entire United States, oftener in the southern and
middle, than in the Northern States; it is more frequently met with during
the winter and spring months than at other times in the year.
Symptoms.--The onset is usually abrupt with a severe chill and chills
lasting from fifteen minutes to an hour, with the temperature suddenly
rising and an active fever. There is usually intense pain in a few hours,
generally in the lower part of the front of the chest, made worse by
breathing and coughing. The patient lies on the affected side so as to
give all chance for the other lung to work, cheeks are flushed, with
anxious expression; the wings of the nostrils move in and out with each
breath. The cough is short, dry and painful. Rapid, shallow, jerky
breathing, increasing to difficult breathing. On the first day the
characteristic expectoration mixed with blood appears (called rusty).
Pulse runs from 100 to 116, full bounding, but may be feeble and small in
serious cases. After three or four days the pain disappears, the
temperature keeps to 104 or 105, but falls quickly the seventh, fifth,
eighth, sixth and ninth day in this order of frequency. In a few hours,
usually twelve, the temperature falls to normal or below, usually with
profuse sweating and with quick relief to all symptoms. This relief from
distressing symptoms is, of course, a time of rejoicing to both patient
and friends and the patient and nurse may feel inclined to relax a little
from the strict observance of rules followed up to this time. Do not,
under any circumstances, yield to such folly. Keep patient properly
covered, as he is weak from the strain and the pores are open.
[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 219]
Convalescence is usually rapid. A prolonged rise of temperature after the
crisis may be regarded as a relapse. Death may occur at any time after the
third day from sudden heart failure, or from complications such as
pleurisy, nephritis, meningitis, pericarditis, endocarditis, gangrene of
the lungs.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Lungs, Salt Pork for Inflammation of.--"Salt pork
dipped in hot water, then covered thick with black pepper. Heat in the
oven and lay or bind on the throat and lungs."
2. Lungs, Raspberry Tincture for Inflammation of.--"Take one-half pound of
honey, one cup water; let these boil; take off the scum; pour boiling hot
upon one-half ounce lobelia herb and one-half ounce cloves; mix well, then
strain and add one gill of raspberry vinegar. Take from one teaspoonful to
a dessertspoonful four times a day. Pleasant to take."