The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-08-18
A PLAIN CHAPTER ON CHOLERA.
BY DR.. JOHN C. DUNN.

Having been requested by several to give
them a receipt for cholera it may not be out
of place to publish few hints which can be
put in practice by any one having the least
idea Of the usual remedies and common ap.
plicatons kept in every family; aud in doing
so, | shall divest my language of every
professional term that is not generally under
stood.
1t is often the case that person attacked
by cholera makes fatal delay in procuring a
physician, or is too far from his abode to
have his attendance in time. The disease is
generally so insidious in its approach that
every little diarrhGa, or uneasiness in the
bowels or stomach should be looked upon
with suspicion when cholera is known to oe
in the neighborhpod. A diarrhGe thus oc-
CURING should be treated Immediately. A
good warm bath, as hot as you can bear it,
and plenty of soap to cleanse the skin; rub
dry with a coarse towel until the surface
glows red, then take three pills of blue mass
with eight or ten drops of landanum. This
will prevent almost any attack of cholera in
its first stage. When it is about no one can
pay too much attention to his diet or his feel
ing. Avoid unripe fruit, or too much of that
which is ripe, Battle every morning with
cold water, and rub the skin roughly for it
has more to do with cholera than people are
aware Of
If YOU let slight darrhea run on for n
day or two, the first you know, you are in the
spasmodic clutch of cholera, when if you had
checked it in season, and removed the cause
by slight medication. the terrible grasp may
never have been laid upon Jon, II does moi
always warn you viii, a diarrhga, but often
comes suddenly. Now lmerely wish to drop
few items of treatment TO be used were
medical treatment cannot be Immediately
procured. When person is attacked by
cholera, boil large kettle of water as soon
as possible,strip the patient naked, put large
mustard poutice over the stomach and bowels
then wringing ont three blankets from the
boiling water, and wrap him in them, winding
dry blanket on the outside to keep the heat
in. Thus yon apply heat all over the body
and bring the blood back to the skin. What's
the use of your rubbing! 1t only creates
little heat-why not apply it all ouer at once
with the blankets; you may put some mustard
or red pepper With the hot water if you
choose. So much for the outside treatment;
now the attention must be turned to the
bowels and stomach. Intense purging and
vomiting are .i~vSest almnus nrnsnai in "hnln--
ra, anu num their exhausting influence, de-
mand prompt treatment. As soon as the
skin begins to warm with the blankets, the
purging and vomiting ceases. Do
not be afraid to give laudanum-give sixty
drops at dose-a little dose wiH do no good
YOU have giant to deal with-knock him
down with big club, and when he's down,
keep him. Ifthe laudanum is vomited up
repeat the dose Immediately. Mix together
red pepper, warm brandy, or whiskey, aud
little camphor, and give it occasionally; but
the great hope-the great dependence must
be on your hot blankets and your laudanum.
I will tell you why:
Cholera is a disease in which the blood
leares the ressels Of The skin and is thro,cn in
,,pon the bo,cels, stomach, lirer and other IN
ternal organs. Nature, in order to get rid of
this unnatural accumulation Of blood, strives
to relieve herself by plunging it out and by
vomiting it up; but any one who has ever
seen person bled, has noticed that the blood
separates into two parts-water and clot.-
Now there are little vessels opening into the
bowels which let out the water part of the
blood but will not permit the clotty to pass,
and this is the cause of so much water being
purged and vomited; the blood thus loses the
water which rendered it fluid and becomes
useless in the vein; and in treating the dis
ease there is one important item to be noticed,
viz: when the purging and vomiting is some-
what checked and the skin begins to take on
, warm sweat, then stop giving brandy and
resort to warm teas. The water of the tea
will be absorbed by the little vessels in the
bowels and taken up to restore to the blood
that which is lost. talk of warm sweat
here is often a cold clammy sweat in cholera
which is equally as exhaustng as the diar-
.hea. The hot blankets soon check it.
The great idea in cholera can be told in
'ew words-brng the blood back to the
skin by applying heat to it externaly-check
he epurging and vomiting with immense doses
If laudanuT.
Laudanum not only does this but it also
eieves the contracted state of the little YES.
'els of the skin aud thus opens the way for
he blood to flow back to the surface.
,ave never known n case to die when treated
hus.
.8y-It is mentioned as n curious fact that
farmer in Connecticut, who recently took |
up fence after it had been standing fourteen
,ears, found all those posts solid which had
,een inverted from the way in which they
grew, while all those which had
,een set as they grew were rotted off at the
bottom. Heads down, therefore, seems II
specific against decay.
tg- Elder Richards, one of the leading
Mormon apostles lately fell in love with two