# Medical guide

NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES
No. 8.
THE
MEDICAL GUIDE;
containing
PLAIN AND SIMPLE DIRECTIONS
for the
TREATMENT of the more COMMON DISEASES.
By an EXPERIENCED PHYSICIAN.
GLASGOW:
PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.
1850.
Price One Penny.
THE
MEDICAL GUIDE.
The following pages are intended to suggest safe and useful hints regarding the more common diseases, and, in the absence of the Physician, may, under the Divine blessing, be the means of relieving much distress, perhaps of saving life. Medical advice ought, however, to be taken, in all possible cases, at the commencement of any disease, or on the occurrence of any accident which threatens anything like serious consequences.
ABSCESS or BEALING.
Causes.—Internal inflammatory action, foreign bodies, diseased bone, &c.
Symptoms.—Cold shivering, throbbing pain, and sense of fulness in affected part.
Treatment.—Heat applied externally; as fomentations with hot water, linseed meal and hemlock poulitices.
Observations.—After the matter is thoroughly formed, which is known by the elastic softness of the part, it ought to be punctured at the most prominent part, so as to evacuate it, and again apply the poultice for a day or two. Purgative medicines ought not to be employed during the suppurative stage, but are proper after tho matter is evacuated. The diet ought to be light until matter is formed, but afterwards more generous. When there is the appearance of the party sinking after the abscess is opened, a little wine negus is proper.
ACID IN THE STOMACH.
Causes.—— Weak digestion, sedentary life, indigestible food, irregular meals, &c.
Symptoms.—— Uneasy pain at pit of stomach, acid eructations, sick, and headache. In infants, crying and drawing up the limbs, greenish coloured stools.
Treatment.—— To relieve, half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda or magnesia, for an adult; to an infant, a little magnesia—if bowels are loose, prepared chalk may be substituted. Animal food is least apt to generate acid.
Observations.—— Acidity in infants at the breast arises very frequently from the mother’s milk, and is best corrected by attention to herself, by avoiding indigestible food, and taking an anti-acid, such as carbonate of soda, or magnesia, once or twice a day; also to take a larger portion of animal food. Infants brought up with the spoon are peculiarly liable to acid, and require, if bowels are bound, a little magnesia, or if there be a looseness, chalk mixture occasionally mixed with their food. The green colour of the stools in infants, is an infallible proof of the presence of acid.
AGUE (Intermitting Fever).
Causes. —— Exposure to exhalation from marshes, increased by poor diet, intemperance, over-fatigue, damp rooms or bed.
Symptoms. —— 1st Stage, cold shivering. 2nd, Increased, and sometimes extreme heat. 3d, Perspiration, which terminates the attack, but which recurs again at stated intervals.
Treatment.—— On the commencement of the cold stage, give 30 drops of laudanum, with cordials in the interval; between the attacks administer Jesuit bark in doses of from l to 2 teaspoonfuls every few hours, or sulphate of quinine in 3 grain doses; when these fail, Dr. Fowler’s solution of arsenic, 10 drops, in water.
​Observations.—— There are three kinds or varieties of agues:——1st, When the attack takes place every twenty four hours. 2nd, When it occurs every second day. 3d, When it occurs every fourth day. Every ague is divided into three stages——the cold, the hot, and sweating stage. Ague cake (as it is named) is an enlargement of tho spleen which lies on the left side.
ASTHMA (Difficult Breathing).
Causes.——Exposure to cold, contracted chest, indigestible food, ropelled eruptions, certain odours, &c.
Symptoms.——When the fit is on, breathing is difficult and convulsive, with a sense of suffocation and constriction at the pit of stomach, harrassing cough with or without expectoration.
Treatment.——Warm dry atmosphere, flannel clothing next the skin, animal food, strong coffee, teaspoonful of syrup of squills with 15 drops of laudanum taken occasionally, turpentine injections; if bowels are constipated, a tablespoonful of castor oil, with 10 and 20 drops spirit of turpentine at bed times, &c. Smokers may try stramonium mixed with the tobacco, particularly when it is a dry asthma.
Observations.——Persons who live much on potatoes are found very liable to asthma, particularly if their employment be sedentary ; also, persons exposed to sudden changes in the temperature, such as out of warm to a cold, or cold to a warm atmosphere. Persons who live mostly on vegetables such as potatoes, ought to substitute animal food. Persons liable to difficult breathing cannot be too careful to have their feet comfortably clad, avoid night air and all irregularities; they ought to keep their bowels open with castor oil repeating the dose frequently. A Burgundy pitch plaster between the shoulders is often of much benefit.
BILE IN THE STOMACH.
Causes.——Indigestible food, costive bowels, obstruction in the liver or gall ducts that convey the bile to ​the stomach; also, increased action of the liver, which causes an overflowing of bile into the stomach.
Symptoms. —— Sickness, usually accompanied with vomiting of bilious matter of bitter taste.
Treatment.——Drink plentifully of warm water or camoline tea until stomach is unloaded, then take a blue mercurial pill at bed-time, and salts with senna tea, or senna and rhubarb, or an active purgative to work it off; if there is much pain in the stomach, apply a mustard poultice, or cloth dipped in turpentine, over seat of pain.
Observations.——Bile in the stomach is a very general term employed in all cases of disordered stomach, arising from any cause. Such as weak digestion, improper food, irregular feeding; and is best prevented by avoiding the causes that tend to produce it, such as late hours, irregular meals, and intemperance. When the bile accumulates to a great extent, it often induces vomiting and purging of bile, and is then called British Cholera, to distinguish it from another disease which has the same name; viz, Asiatic Cholera, in which there is no bile vomited or purged, and is a perfectly distinct disease.
BURNS, SCALDS, &c.
Causes.——Fire, boiling water, and acrid substances, such as vitriol, aqua fortis.
Symptoms.——The symptoms are all inflammation, modified by the part that is injured, whether it be a vital or non-vital part; also, the extent of the burn, both as regards its depth and surface.
Treatment.——Carded cotton, when put to a burn at the commencement, will often prevent its bad effects, and if allowed to remain will sometimes render other treatment unnecessary. Sulphur sprinkled on the surface, and sweet oil poured over it, has a soothing effect. Carron oil, which consists of equal parts of lime water and linseed oil, being frequently poured over the burn, or a linen cloth dipped in the mixture and laid over it, is a favourite remedy with many.
​Observations.——Burns are of frequent occurrence, and all families should have a supply of carded cotton, sweet oil, linseed oil, and lime water, particularly when any of their number are exposed to burning, such as engineers, smiths, &c. The great matter, in cases of burning, is prompt application of the remedy; any simple thing that is soft, and keeps a regular temperature, is answerable; and perhaps there is not a better and readier thing than a soft linen cloth wrung out of warm water and laid over the part, and carefully covering the wetted cloth with a dry towel or two, so as to retain the vapour. The heat of the skin keeps up the temperature of the water, so as to retain a soft covering of vapour around it. If the burn be deep, however, it may be requisite to poultice it till the dead part separate, and then dress it as a common sore, with hogs' lard or Turuer's eerate spread upon a linen cloth, &c.
CHILBLAINS.
Causes.——Sudden transition from severe cold to heat, particularly when the feet or hands are wet.
Symptoms.——Swelling and redness, sensation of heat and itching at the affected part, which is usually in the fingers and toes. In severe cases, the chilblain assumes a bluish or purplish hue.
Treatment.——Rub the parts affected well with snow or ice water, or bath them in the latter several times daily, always taking care to dry well; another plan is to rub them with spirits of wine, tincture of soap and opium, or a solution of alum in vinegar.
Observations.——When chilblains suppurate, leaving open sores, they may be bathed with lime water, tincture of myrrh, or warm vinegar, and dressed with common citron ointment; but if very backward, they require to be touched occasionally with lunar caustic. Active exercise in the open air, and comfortable clothing, are tho best preventatives.
CHOLERA (Asiatic).
Causes.——Unknown. Intemperance, and all irregularities in living, deficiencies in food or clothing, want of cleanliness in house or person, the use of impure water, or accumulations of filth near dwelling, predispose to this, as in fact to almost every other disease.
Symptoms.-The first and easily curablo stage, is simple looseness of the bowels, which precedes the attack of the real cholera sometimes for some days, going off and returning alternately, till the purging become copious, and the matter passed resembles thin gruel, then vomiting a similar fluid. After this has continue for a longer or shorter period, the extremities become cold, which extends gradually over the whole body, till it has the cold feel of a corpse. The disease is accompanied in the latter stage usually with cramps in the limbs, arms, and often the whole muscular system, and which are the cause of intense suffering. The voice sinks into a whisper——the pulse leaves the wrist, and gradually the heart ceases to beat——a blueish lividity is over the body——the nose pinched, and the eye-balls' sink deep into the sockets, and sometimes, previous to death, the patient has all the appearance of a living corpse.
Treatment.——In this formidable scourge, any good that is to be done must be done at the very commencement, and this is to check the bowel complaint that precedes the real disease, and which may in general bo easily accomplished by taking 30 or 40 drops of laudanum (the patient having previously gone to bed). A mustard poultice ought to be applied over the stomach and bowels. Should the purging continue, a mixture of chalk and laudanum, in the proportion of a dram of chalk, 3 drams of laudanum, with 2 ounces mualage of gum arabic, and tho same of cinnamon water, from 1 to 2 teaspoonfulls after every inclination to stool. Also, 2 grain doses of calomel, administered every 20 minutes, until the gums get tender, when the danger is almost over. The patient ought to be well covered ​with bed-clothes, and be strictly enjoined on no account to raise his head; on this account, a bed-pan is indispensable, more lives being lost by parties getting up to go to stool than any other cause, which is in every case to be most strictly prohibited. To relievo the intolerablo thirst that always exists, toast and water, and, what has often proved highly beneficial, an infusion of coffee without sugar or milk, of which the patient my drink as much as he chooses. —— N.B. Oak bark boiled in water, in the proportion of 2 ounces of the bark to an English pint of water, and injecting the full of a 3-ounce syringe after every stool, has been found in many cases to check the disease, and ought to be tried, as it does not interfere with the other modes of treatment.
Observations.——Dr. Sutherland, the government authority on this subject, was so convinced of the importance of an early attention to the premonitory symptoms of this disease, that his whole energies were exerted to establish an efficient staff of medical assistants, who, instead of waiting till they were sent for, had instructions to visit every family in the several districts alloted to each, to inquire into the state of the bowels, and administering an opium pill, or a few drops of laudanum, to check any looseness. The consequence of this prudential arrangement has been, that hundreds, if not thousands of cases of the incipient disease, have been checked in the bud, which, had it been allowed to go on, would have ended in all the dreadful symptoms of genuine cholera. Would persons only be persuaded to attend to their bowels the instant they are affected with purging, so as to get this checked, the result would be, that there would not be a single death from cholera. Let this plain fact bo engraven upon the minds of every one, so as to produce a practical influence on their conduct; and let attention be paid to diet and regimen——shunning spirits or spirituous liquors as they would do poison——and also attend to keep their persons and houses clean and sweet, and use their influence to get nuisances, such as dung heaps or any other accumulation of impurity, removed; and let all unite their energies for the general good, to supply wholesomo food and warm ​clothing for the needy, and act upon the maxim that the good of all is the good of each, and the benefit of each is the benefit of all. This conduct would tend more than anything else to convert this terrible scourge into an actual blessing——N.B. It is remarkable that during the prevalence of Cholera in Glasgow, the inhabitants resident on the south side of the river Clyde suffered much less severely than their neighbours on the north. The reason that medical men have ascribed for this is, that they are suppiled by the Gorbals Gravitation Water Co. with water of a much purer quality. This fact is deserving of the most careful attention. Dr. Kirk, of Greenock, during the prevalence of the former cholera, was the first to point out the premonitory looseness of bowels.
COLDS and COUGHS.
Causes.——Changes of temperature, wet clothes, damp feet, &c.
Symptoms.——Commences with a thin discharge from the nose, with cough and expectoration of mucous.
Treatment.——Drink plentifully of linseed tea, or any mild diluent; avoid cold moist air, remain in bed; if there be severe pain in the chest, apply a cloth dipped in turpentine.
Observations.——If cough be excessive, a teasponful of paragoric may be taken occasionally. If fever run high, 10 or 20 drops antimonial wine in water, repeated when necessary. Though coughs and colds are not in themselves dangerous, yet, as they may lay the foundation of more serious disease, they ought to be carefully attended to.
COLIC.
Causes.——Indigestible food, acrid bile, costive state of bowels, acidities.
Symptoms.——Pain and distention of the belly, twisting round the navel, often accompanied with vomiting, &c.
​Treatment.——If acid be present, half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in warm water; if acrid bile, drink plentifully of hot water to encourage its being thrown off by vomiting.
Observations.——If costive bowels, an injection of castor oil and turpentine, a tablespoonful of the former and a teaspoonful of the latter, with thin gruel. Should the pain continue violent, a mustard poultice may be applied over the belly, also 40 to 50 drops of laudanum given. Persons subject to the attacks of colic ought to be careful what they eat and drink, avoiding acid, unripe fruits, or insufficiently cooked vegetables, also fermented drinks; and take precautions to avoid a costive state of the bowels.
CONTUSIONS (Bruises).
Causes.——External violence.
Symptoms.——Pain, discolouration, and tumefaction about the seat of injury.
Treatment.——Foment the part with hot water, or bathe it with vinegar, or apply a poultice, or cloths wrung out of hot water.
Observations.——If much inflammatory action ensue, so as to affect the pulse, bleeding and purging are proper. If suppuration takes place, evacuate the matter by puncturing with a lancet.
CONVULSIONS in CHILDREN.
Causes.——Teething, worms, repelled eruptions, flatulency, disordered bowels, injuries of the head, such as a blow, &c.
Symptoms.——Screaming, starting, twisting of the muscles of the face, rapid movement of the eyelids and often the whole body.
Treatment.——If from teething, scarify the gums; if worms, give calomel and scamony in doses proportioned to the age; if costive bowels, give an injection of salt and warm water, or castor oil and thin gruel.
​Observations.——If from repelled eruptions a hot bath in which mustard has been sprinkled; if face be flushed, with strong pulse, apply leeches to the temples and small blisters behind the ears.
CORNS.
Causes.——Repeated and long-continued pressure from tight or high-heeled shoes.
Symptoms.——Horn-like hardness of the skin, causing pain when pressed upon.
Treatment.——The certain cure is broad-soled soft shoes; also eight or twelve plies of linen smeared with oil, having an aperture cut in the middle exactly adapted to the size of the corn, laid over each other, so as that the corn be in the opening in such a manner that it cannot be pressed upon by the shoes or stockings.
Observations.——Considerable relief, and sometimes a permament cure, is made, by merely cutting a thin piece off the top of the corn, and allowing the melted tallow from a lighted candle to fall upon it. Too much care cannot be taken in cutting corns, as when the skin is cut or injured till the blood comes, fungus granulations rise, and are difficult to heal, and may even end in mortification, &c. If the corn be at the sole of the foot, put a felt sole in the shoe wherein a hole has been cut corresponding with the size and figure of the corn.
COSTIVENESS.
Causes.——Irregularity in going to stool, too much dry food, copious sweatings, &c.
Treatment.——Castor oil, from half an ounce to an ounce, repeated as often as necessary; a blue mercurial pill occasionally.
Observations.——Soft food, such as porridge and butter-milk or treacle to supper; chew a small bit of rough rhubarb at bed-time, &c; regularity in going to stool as near as possible at the same hour.
CROUP.
Causes.——Cold temperature.
Symptoms.——Hoarse, sonorous cough and wheezing inspiration, which increases as the disease progresses, until suffocating gasping breathing, followed by convulsive attempts at respiration ensues, amidst which the little creature suddenly expires.
Treatment.——If the pulse be strong and heat of skin extreme, bleed from the arm, or apply leeches to the throat; give calomel and tartar emetic, two grains of the former to one sixteenth of a grain of the latter, every two hours, until greenish coloured mucous stools appear, then give from one to two spoonfuls of castor oil.
Observations.——It is sometimes of advantage to premise a wine vomit, by giving a teaspoonful of antimonial or ipecacuan wine every 10 minutes until free vomiting ensue. A blister over the throat may be applied till properly risen, when the water should be let out, and as much of the loose skin removed as possible, and dress the surface with common issue ointment.——N.B. Croup is always to be regarded as a very dangerous disease, and it is only by active treatment at the very commencement that we can expect any benefit; and no time ought to be lost in sending for a skilful physician.
ERUCTATION (Belching Wind).
Causes.——Often from a bad habit, bad digestion, indigestible substances, &c.
Symptoms.——Belchings of wind from the stomach upwards, uneasy sensation in the throat, &c.
Treatment.——Powered ginger in food, or ginger tea; avoid all food that disagrees. Brandered or roasted animal food without vegetables, particularly cabbages, peas, and beans, &c., is the most suitable.
Observations.——Eructation is sometimes the result of giving way to a bad habit, and is to be prevented by the party liable to it strenuously resisting the offensivo indulgence.
ERUPTIONS OF THE SKIN.
Causes.——In children, want of cleanliness; irritation from teething; disordered bowels from bad milk, &c.
Symptoms.——The symptoms depend upon the cause; one resembles measles, another the itch, and a third consists of large loose scabs on the forehead and face.
Treatment.——The utmost attention to cleanliness is indispensable; if bowels are costive, give a teaspoonful of magnesia; when the rush is present, keep the child moderately warm to prevent it striking in.
Observations.——The occasional employment of the warm bath, light food, and abundant supply of pure water as drink. A not unfrequent cause of eruptions on the skin is venereal disease, which descends to the offspring; in such a case the infant must be treated for this disease. Scorbutic eruptions must be treated as scurvy.
EXCORIATIONS OF INFANTS.
Causes.—Want of cleanliness, inattention to drying the infant after washing, &c.
Symptoms.——Chafing in the neck, behind the ears arm-pits, or groin.
Treatment.——Dry the skin well, after washing, with a soft thoroughly dry cloth, sprinkling a little dusting powder over the excoriated parts, and excoriation will speedily vanish.
Observations.——Children of a full habit, during teething, are very liable to excoriations, and require opening medicines frequently repeated. ——N.B. Clean dry under clothing is indispensable.
EYES, INFLAMMATION OF.
Causes.——Effects of cold, external injuries, extraneous bodies, &c.
Symptoms.——Pain, heat, redness of the eyeballs, intolerance of light, &c.
​Treatment.——Fomentation of warm water; bathing; with sugar of lead water; drop into the eye 2 or 3 drops of solution of nitrate of silver, 3 grains to the ounce of water, morning and night.
Observations.——Sometimes after the severity of the inflammation is subdued, specks remain on the eye that obscure vision; the solution of the nitrate of silver should be dropped into the eyes, or an eyewash consisting of 10 grains white vitriol and 15 grains common salt, disolved in a gill of spring water, putting a drop or two into the affected eye morning and night.
FAINTINGS, &c.
Causes.——Mental emotion; over blood-letting; hysterical affection, aggravated by disordered bowels; indigestible food, &c.; organic diseases of the heart; tight-lacing (very frequent).
Symptoms.——Paleness, and respiration suspended, the party being for the time in a state of insensibility; when animation returns, she is affected sometimes with convulsions, belching of wind, &c.
Treatment.——Hartshorn smelling salts; burnt feathers to the nostrils; dash cold water over face; admit a free current of air; relieve party from tight corsets,&c.
Observations.——Females are more liable to swoonings and faintings than males. The reason for this is their more susceptible organization, but a frequent cause is wearing tight stays, a practice which, while deforming the natural symmetry of the figure, exercises a most prejudicial influence on the health, and should be reprobated as much as the women of China crushing their feet into the compass of an ordinary snuff-box. When will the fair sex of these islands abandon this monstrously absurd practice so fraught with evil? not, we suspect, till a few spirited females will resolve to be singular, and discard tight-lacing as a species of suicide!
FLUX (Dysentery).
Causes.——State of the atmosphere, eating unripe fruits and vegetables, exposure to cold and damp, unwholesome food, &c.
Symptoms.——Pain in the bowels, accompanied with griping; pressing pain at stool, which consists principally of mucous tinged with blood.
Treatment.——At the commencement of the attack, an emetic of 15 grains ipecacuan, to 1 grain of tartar emetic, and drinking plentifully of linseed tea, following up this with 1 ounce of castor oil, with from 20 to 30 drops of laudanum, and keeping warm in bed for a day or two, will often check the disease in the bud.
Observations.——If it progress, use elysters of starch and laudanum after every inclination to stool, &c. A teaspoonful of laudanum may be added to the injection in the case of an adult, 5 to 16 drops to an infant. Dysentery is a very troublesome disease, and when once established is very intractable, leaving the subject after recovery in a weak languid state, and liable to a relapse on any impropriety on his part. Hence the necessity of attention to the first symptoms. Roll of flannel worn round the bowels is a good precautionary measure, and the utmost attention to diet, which ought to be principally animal.
GIDDINESS.
Causes.——Fullness of blood in the head, flatulence, &c.
Symptoms.——Objects appear whirling round; unsteady gait, and tendency to fall.
Treatment.——If from fulness of blood, leeches to the temples; cooling purgatives, as salts, &c.; vegetable diet. If from flatulence, a teaspoonful of tincture of valerian, or 10 drops of hartshorn and water.
Observations.——The habits of the patient, whether intemperate in eating and drinking, or otherwise, also whether he be short-necked, of a florid complexion, or the reverse, ought to be taken into account; otherwise danger may be incurred in adopting active treatment without the advice of medical men, who ought to be consulted at the commencement.
GRAVEL and STONE IN THE KIDNEYS OR BLADDER.
Causes.——Indigestion, improper nutriment, impure water, sedentary life, &c.
Symptoms.—Pain and difficulty in passing water, which often, when the party is affected, contains sandy deposit, sometimes of a vermillion red colour; in others, like a brick dust; while in a third there is a whitish powder.
Treatment.——When an attack of gravel or stone is severe, much relief is often experienced by the warm hip bath, or cloths wrung out of hot water and applied over seat of pain; also give soap pills, one 3 times a day; or potash water, ten drops in a wine-glassful of warm water; or a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda in water. The patient ought to drink plentifully of linseed tea.
Observations.——When a fit of the gravel comes on, there is a pain in back and loins, numbness of the thigh of the affected side; nausea and vomiting, &c. Stono in the kidneys or bladder is usually a formidable disease, and the treatment of it is only to be entrusted to the care of a skilful surgeon; nor ought any party to delay a moment in consulting proper skill, when the simple rules afore-mentioned have proved ineffectual. It is worthy of notice that temperate people who drink plentifully of pure water, are seldom troubled with this malady. (See Remarks on Acid in the Stomach.)
GRIPES IN INFANTS.
Causes.——Irritating matter in the bowels, flatulence, &c.
Symptoms.——Child screams violently, twists itself on nurse's arm; belly hard, sounds like a drum when tapped upon.
Treatment.——Give a teaspoonful of magnesia or castor oil, with from 2 or 3 drops of laudanum, or 10 drops aromatic spirit of hartshorn in water.
Observations.——Warm the infant's feet and bowels before the fire, rubbing them gently with the hand; ​introduce a properly-shaped bit of soap, to induce the bowels to act.
HEADACHE.
Causes.——Effects of cold, especially sitting in a current of air ; bile or acid in stomach; fulness of blood, want of sleep, &c.
Symptoms.——Pain, dull or acute and throbing, sometimes darting through head; sense of heat over forehead and temples.
Treatment.—Depending upon the cause that gives rise to it. In general, bathing the head with vinegar and water; and giving opening medicine such as seidlitz powders, &c.
Observations.——The great matter is to ascertain the cause that produces headache (which is the accompaniment of many diseases), such as costive bowels, mental excitement, &c., and prescribe accordingly.
HEARTBURN.
Causes.——Indigestion; errors in diet, very frequently producing acid in the stomach.
Symptoms.——Burning uneasy sensation in the stomach.
Treatment.——If from acid, immediate relief is obtained by taking half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda or magnesia.
Observations.——Brandered animal food is best for persons who are predisposed to acid.
HOOPING COUGH.
Causes.——Specific contagion, modified by the season of the year.
Symptoms.——Repeated fits of coughing, which, after the disease is formed, is accompanied with a sonorous inspiration, called the hoop; increased heat of surface.
Treatments.——Measures to subdue the fever, such as light food, abundance of fluids to drink; if much pain is felt in chest, leech and blister; give an emetic of ipecacuan wine occasionally.
Observations.——After the inflammatory symptoms have subsided, a change of air from the town to the ​country, or, if the child be resident in the country, for the town, has a singularly beneficial effect; of course, attention to the bowels is necessary, and an embrocation to the back, consisting of strong spirits, in which bruised garlic has been steeped for six hours, or Rooche’s Embrocation.——N.B. The child ought to wear flannel clothing next the skin.
ITCH.
Causes.——Infection, encouraged by inattention to cleanliness.
Symptoms.——Watery pustules about the fingers, wrists, and hams; intolerable itching.
Treatment.——The popular remedy, sulphur mixed with hogs’ lard, rubbed over the skin, answers very well. When this remedy fails, add 1 part of mercurial ointment to 10 parts of the sulphur, &c., which is a certain cure.
Observations.——After disease is checked, the bed and body clothes of the patient require to be carefully scoured, else the disease will return.
LOOSENESS (Diarrhoea).
Causes.——Irritating substances in the stomach or bowels, such as indigestible food; irritable state of the bowels, owing to obstructed perspiration, &c.
Symptoms.——Purging of copious watery feculent matter, accompanied with nausea, griping pains, and flatulence.
Treatment.——A brisk purge of castor oil, or tincture of rhubarb with 20 drops of laudanum to carry off offensive matter; then chalk mixture, with a few drops of laudanum.
Observations.—— If looseness continue, calomel and chalk in small doses 3 times daily; bread and milk boiled, as diet. In long continued looseness, the use of astringents, such as tincture of catechu or kino.—— N.B. A flannel roller around bowels is useful, &c.
MEASELS.
Causes.——Specific contagion.
Symptoms.——Commences with sneezing, watery red​ness over cyes, pain in head, hoarse cough, increased hcat, then small darkish red spots over body.
Treatment.——Measles is in general a mild disease, requiring little treatment besides keeping the patient moderately warm. The apartment ought to be darkened, and the patient have plenty of fluid to drink.
Observations.——When inflammatory symptoms run high, bleeding with leeches; when eruption is repelled, the hot bath with mustard. Whiskey and sulphur is an old and a popular, but a very questionable remedy employed for striking out the rash. After the eruption has disappeared, a little opening medicine, as castor oil, senna tea, &c., ought to be given.
PILES.
Causes.——Habitual costiveness; hard riding; straining at stool; the use of aloctie purgatives, &c.
Symptoms.——Small hard tumours at the verge of the anus, causing much pain, which is increased by active cxereise or straining at stool; oceasionally discharge of blood from anus.
Treatment.——Rest in recumbent posture; laxitive mcdicines, such as sulphur and cream of tartar, a teaspoonful of each, taken each night in treacle, or chew bit of rhubarb root; anoint with pile ointment, the best consists of five grains of gallic acid to an ounce of lard.
Observations.——If piles be excessively painful, a little extraet of opium ought to be added to the ointment. The use of ardent spirits, wines, or ales, must be entirely interdicted. The food should be light, and of easy digestion.——N.B. It is sometimes useful to apply leeches or get the piles lanced; a warm poultice of linseed being immediately afterwards applied to encourage the bleeding.
RHEUMATISM (ACUTE).
Causes.——Exposure to cold or damp.
Symptoms.——Pain, often extreme in the part affected, generally the arms, shoulders, back, limbs, or joints, sometimes all of them, accompanied with quick, hard pulse, and other febrile symptoms.
Treatment.——Sharp treatment is best, such as ​bloodletting; or combino tartrate of antimony, ten grains, to threc ounces cpsom salts, dissolved in a quart of water, a wine glassful every twenty minutes till free purging and vomiting; rub affected part with turpentine, hartshorn and oil, essence of mustard; use vapour bath, &c.
Observations.——The use of the cold bath, or sponging the body with cold water, is an oxcellent preventative, and when the acute symptoms of the disease is removed, is a powerful means of restoring the system, and steeling it against a renewal of the attack of rheumatism. Quininc, in doses from 1 to 5 grains, an hour before a meal, is sometimes a valuable auxiliary towards removing the remaining symptoms, and warding off an attack of rheumatism.
RHEUMATISM (CHRONIC).
Causes.——When the acute stage is improperly treated, it is succeded by the chronic
Symptoms.——The pain in back or limbs, &c., becomes permanent, and the party is affected by cvery change in the atmosphere, so as to resemble a wcatherglass.
Treatment.——A teaspoonful of tincture of meadow saffron morning and night, with from 35 to 60 drops of laudanum at bed time; a teaspoonful of oil of turpentinc in a tablespoonful of castor oil repcated occasionally. N.B.——A tablespoonful of cod liver oil 3 times a day has been found to answer as a specific in rheumatism.
Observations.——The observations on Acute Rheumatism apply here also.
RINGWORM.
Causes.——Infection, from the use of a comb, &c., of a party affected with the discase.
Symptoms.——Cluster of small red pimples, forming a circular ring; when on the head, causing the hair to fall off, having a great tendency to spread.
Treatment.——Strong decoction of galls, or solution of corrosive sublimate, three grains to ounce of water; bathe affected part.
Observations.——There is often a necessity to get ​the head shaved and washed with black soap and water before the remedies will take effect.——N.B. Corrosive sublimate being very insoluble, a few drops muriatic acid added will assist the solution.
ROSE (St. Anthony's Fire).
Causes.——Effects of cold, with bad habit of body, &e.; from improper food, but especially intemperance.
Symptoms.——Cold shivering, succeded by heat, and a bright red covering the part affected, which is sometimes the head and face, accompanied with delirium; sometimes the limbs, &c.
Treatment.——Cover the part affected with earded eotton or lint, dusting it with flour, having anointed it with earron oil previously; or apply eloths dipped in turpentine or ardent spirits; above all, clean out the bowels with a brisk purgative at the commencement, keeping the patient upon light vegetable diet.
Observations.——Rose is oceasionally an indication of serious internal disease; a frequent oeeurrence in the dissipated when the constitution is breaking up. In such a case the danger is imminent; nor can the stimulant be entirely withdrawn without risk. The adviee of an intelligent surgeon here is quite indispensable.
SCALD HEAD.
Causes.——Want of attention to cleanliness, disordered bowels, &e.
Symptoms.——An eruption of an irritable nature, aceompanied with heat of surface and intolerable itching over ebild's head.
Treatment.——Shave head, wash with Spanish soap, dress with tar ointment twice a day, powder head with pounded charcoal, clear out bowels with active purgatives.
Observations.——If the preceding means fail, alum pounded very fine, a table spoonful to the pint of milk, aud well shaken; cloths dipped in the same and applied to the head was a favourite remedy with an intelligent quack, and has been found to answer here, and in cases of scurvy, admirably well, by intelligent medical men.
SPRAINS & BRUISES.
Causes.——External violence.
Symptoms.——Part swollen, painful, and sometimes discoloured.
Treatment.——Bathe with ardent spirits or vinegar, or apply cloths dipped in cold water, or mixed with vinegar; sometimes hot water or hot poultices give most relief; rub with soap linament, &c.
Observations.——Allowing a stream of cold water to fall upon tho sprain for a considerable time, to be repeated daily, is often of singular benefit.——N.B, Sugar of lead, dissolved in hot water, is much recommended as an application.
SCARLET FEVER.
Causes.——Specific contagion, modified by tho state of the atmosphere, &c.
Symptoms.——Commences with cold shivering, succeeded by increased heat, confusion of mind, scarlet efflorescence, which disappears on the third day, after which the outer skin peels aud falls off. Usually there is sore throat.
Treatment.——In general little treatment is required besides guarding against the extremes of cold or heat; aboundant supply of mild diluents, as barley water, eream of tartar and water, or tamarinds and water, &c.; gargle throat with borax in water; if severe, and there is a tendency to mortification, the throat requires to be rubbed over with a solution of lunar caustic.
Observations.——An attack of scarlet fever renders the patient susceptible to be injuriously affected with cold for a considerable time after; also dropsy of the celular substance, requiring the employment of diuretics such as eream of tartar and salt petre, squill and calomel, &c. Swelling of the glands is a common occurrence, and to be treated same as Abcess.
SORE THROAT (Quinsey).
Causes.——Exposure to cold and damp
​Symptoms.——Pain and difficulty in swallowing swelling of the tonsels, which are covered with a viscid mucous; if not relicved carly, suppuration takes place.
Treatment.——At the commencement give an emetic, and follow it up by an active purgative; drink plentifully of warm diluents, such as toast and water, and gargle with vinegar and warm water.
Observations.——On the continent of Europe, the practice in Quinscy is to deluge the patient with mild drinks, such as from the pomegranate seed, liusecd tea, &c.——N.B. Should throat suppurate, it sometimes requires to be lanced.
TOOTHACHE
Causes.—Caries in tooth, caused by disordered state of the stomach and bowels; cold or damp; sweetmcats, &c.
Symptoms.——Violent pain in affected tooth, darting sometimes to the jaw, side of face, and head.
Treatment.——If decay be fairly commenced, extraction of the tooth is the only certain remedy; temporary benefit is felt by introducing into the decayed tooth a bit of lint with oil of cloves, caguput, or laudanum, &c.; dose of castor oil, &c.
Observations.——In cases where there is a cavity in the tooth, further decay is often prevented by filling with silver filings mixed with quicksilver, rubbed together till it form a paste, to be introduced into the cavity, and which by and by hardens, thus excluding the air.—N.B. Rinsing the mouth morning and evening, and after mcals, with cold spring water, is a good preventative against toothache; also, cold bathing or sponging the neck and arms on getting out of bed.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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