Part 24

6. REMEDIES.--A few tablespoonfuls of hot water will often allay a severe attack of the colic. Catnip tea is also a good remedy.

A drop of essence of peppermint in 6 or 7 teaspoonfuls of hot water will give relief.

If the stools are green and the child is very restless, give chamomilla.

If the child is suffering from constipation, and undigested curds of milk appear in its fæces, and the child starts suddenly in its sleep, give nux vomica.

An injection of a few spoonfuls of hot water into the rectum with a little asafoetida is an effective remedy, and will be good for an adult.

_CONSTIPATION._

1. This is a very frequent ailment of infants. The first thing necessary is for the mother to regulate her diet.

2. If the child is nursed regularly and held out at the same time of each day, it will seldom be troubled with this complaint. Give plenty of _water_. Regularity of habit is the remedy. If this method fails, use a soap suppository. Make it by paring a piece of white castile soap round. It should be made about the size of a lead pencil, pointed at the end.

3. Avoid giving a baby drugs. Let the physician administer them if necessary. {329}

_DIARRHOEA._

Great care should be exercised by parents in checking the diarrhoea of children. Many times serious diseases are brought on by parents being too hasty in checking this disorder of the bowels. It is an infant's first method of removing obstructions and overcoming derangements of the system.

_SUMMER COMPLAINT._

1. Summer complaint is an irritation and inflammation of the lining membranes of the intestines. This may often be caused by teething, eating indigestible food, etc.

2. If the discharges are only frequent and yellow and not accompanied with pain, there is no cause for anxiety; but if the discharges are green, soon becoming gray, brown and sometimes frothy, having a mixture of phlegm, and sometimes containing food undigested, a physician had better be summoned.

3. For mild attacks the following treatment may be given:

1) Keep the child perfectly quiet and keep the room well aired.

2) Put a drop of tincture of camphor on a teaspoonful of sugar, mix thoroughly; then add 6 teaspoonfuls of hot water and give a teaspoonful of the mixture every ten minutes. This is indicated where the discharges are watery, and where there is vomiting and coldness of the feet and hands. Chamomilla is also an excellent remedy. Ipecac and nux vomica may also be given.

In giving homoeopathic remedies, give 5 or 6 pellets every 2 or 3 hours.

3) The diet should be wholesome and nourishing.

_FOR TEETHING._

If a child is suffering with swollen gums, is feverish, restless, and starts in its sleep, give nux vomica. {330}

WORMS.

_PIN WORMS._

Pin worms and round worms are the most common in children. They are generally found in the lower bowels.

SYMPTOMS.--Restlessness, itching about the anus in the fore part of the evening, and worms in the fæces.

TREATMENT.--Give with a syringe an injection of a tablespoonful of linseed oil. Cleanliness is also very necessary.

_ROUND WORMS._

A round worm is from six to sixteen inches in length, resembling the common earth worm. It inhabits generally the small intestines, but it sometimes enters the stomach and is thrown up by vomiting.

SYMPTOMS.--Distress, indigestion, swelling of the abdomen, grinding of the teeth, restlessness, and sometimes convulsions.

TREATMENT.--One teaspoonful of powdered wormseed mixed with a sufficient quantity of molasses, or spread on bread and butter.

Or, one grain of santonine every four hours for two or three days, followed by a brisk cathartic. Wormwood tea is also highly recommended.

SWAIM'S VERMIFUGE. 2 ounces wormseed, 1½ ounces valerian, 1½ ounces rhubarb, 1½ ounces pink-root, 1½ ounces white agaric.

Boil in sufficient water to yield 3 quarts of decoction, and add to it 30 drops of oil of tansy and 45 drops of oil of cloves, dissolved in a quart of rectified spirits. Dose, 1 teaspoonful at night.

_ANOTHER EXCELLENT VERMIFUGE._

Oil of wormseed, 1 ounce, Oil of anise, 1 ounce, Castor oil, 1 ounce, Tinct. of myrrh, 2 drops, Oil of turpentine, 10 drops.

Mix thoroughly. Always shake well before using. Give 10 to 15 drops in cold coffee, once or twice a day.

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HOW TO TREAT CROUP

SPASMODIC AND TRUE.

_SPASMODIC CROUP._

[Illustration]

DEFINITION.--A spasmodic closure of the glottis which interferes with respiration. Comes on suddenly and usually at night, without much warning. It is a purely nervous disease and may be caused by reflex nervous irritation from undigested food in the stomach or bowels, irritation of the gums in dentition, or from brain disorders.

SYMPTOMS.--Child awakens suddenly at night with suspended respiration or very difficult breathing. After a few respirations it cries out and then falls asleep quietly, or the attack may last an hour or so, when the face will become pale, veins in the neck become turgid and feet and hands contract spasmodically. In mild cases the attacks will only occur once during the night, but may recur on the following night.

HOME TREATMENT.--During the paroxysm dashing cold water in the face is a common remedy. To terminate the spasm and prevent its return give teaspoonful doses of {332} powdered alum. The syrup of squills is an old and tried remedy; give in 15 to 30 drop doses and repeat every 10 minutes till vomiting occurs. Seek out the cause if possible and remove it. It commonly lies in some derangement of the digestive organs.

_TRUE CROUP._

DEFINITION.--This disease consists of an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the upper air passages, particularly of the larynx with the formation of a false membrane that obstructs the breathing. The disease is most common in children between the ages of two and seven years, but it may occur at any age.

SYMPTOMS.--Usually there are symptoms of a cold for three or four days previous to the attack. Marked hoarseness is observed in the evening with a ringing metallic cough and some difficulty in breathing, which increases and becomes somewhat paroxysmal till the face which was at first flushed becomes pallid and ashy in hue. The efforts at breathing become very great, and unless the child gets speedy relief it will die of suffocation.

HOME TREATMENT.--Patient should be kept in a moist warm atmosphere, and cold water applied to the neck early in the attack. As soon as the breathing seems difficult give a half to one teaspoonful of powdered alum in honey to produce vomiting and apply the remedies suggested in the treatment of diphtheria, as the two diseases are thought by many to be identical. When the breathing becomes labored and face becomes pallid, the condition is very serious and a physician should be called without delay.

_SCARLET FEVER._

DEFINITION.--An eruptive contagious disease, brought about by direct exposure to those having the disease, or by contact with clothing, dishes, or other articles, used about the sick room.

The clothing may be disinfected by heating to a temperature of 230° Fahrenheit or by dipping in boiling water before washing. {333}

Dogs and cats will also carry the disease and should be kept from the house, and particularly from the sick room.

SYMPTOMS.--Chilly sensations or a decided chill, fever, headache, furred tongue, vomiting, sore throat, rapid pulse, hot dry skin and more or less stupor. In from 6 to 18 hours a fine red rash appears about the ears, neck and shoulders, which rapidly spreads to the entire surface of the body. After a few days, a scurf or branny scales will begin to form on the skin. These scales are the principal source of contagion.

HOME TREATMENT.

1. Isolate the patient from other members of the family to prevent the spread of the disease.

2. Keep the patient in bed and give a fluid diet of milk gruel, beef tea, etc., with plenty of cold water to drink.

3. Control the fever by sponging the body with tepid water, and relieve the pain in the throat by cold compresses, applied externally.

4. As soon as the skin shows a tendency to become scaly, apply goose grease or clean lard with a little boracic acid powder dusted in it, or better, perhaps, carbolized vaseline to relieve the itching and prevent the scales from being scattered about, and subjecting others to the contagion.

REGULAR TREATMENT.--A few drops of aconite every three hours to regulate the pulse, and if the skin be pale and circulation feeble, with tardy eruption, administer one to ten drops of tincture of belladonna, according to the age of the patient. At the end of third week, if eyes look puffy and feet swell, there is danger of Acute Bright's disease, and a physician should be consulted. If the case does not progress well under the home remedies suggested, a physician should be called at once.

_WHOOPING COUGH._

DEFINITION.--This is a contagious disease which is known by a peculiar whooping sound in the cough. Considerable mucus is thrown off after each attack of spasmodic coughing.

SYMPTOMS.--It usually commences with the symptoms of a common cold in the head, some chilliness, feverishness, {334} restlessness, headache, a feeling of tightness across the chest, violent paroxysms of coughing, sometimes almost threatening suffocation, and accompanied with vomiting.

HOME TREATMENT.--Patient should eat plain food and avoid cold drafts and damp air, but keep in the open air as much as possible. A strong tea made of the tops of red clover is highly recommended. A strong tea made of chestnut leaves, sweetened with sugar, is also very good.

1 teaspoonful of powdered alum. 1 teaspoonful of syrup.

Mix in a tumbler of water, and give the child one teaspoonful every two or three hours. A kerosene lamp kept burning in the bed chamber at night is said to lessen the cough and shorten the course of the disease.

_MUMPS._

DEFINITION.--This is a contagious disease causing the inflammation of the salivary glands, and is generally a disease of childhood and youth.

SYMPTOMS.--A slight fever, stiffness of the neck and lower jaw, swelling and soreness of the gland. It usually develops in four or five days and then begins to disappear.

HOME TREATMENT.--Apply to the swelling a hot poultice of cornmeal and bread and milk. A hop poultice is also excellent. Take a good dose of physic and rest carefully. A warm general bath, or mustard foot bath, is very good. Avoid exposure or cold drafts. If a bad cold is taken, serious results may follow.

_MEASLES._

DEFINITION.--It is an eruptive, contagious disease, preceded by cough and other catarrhal symptoms for about four or five days. The eruption comes rapidly in small red spots, which are slightly raised.

SYMPTOMS.--A feeling of weakness, loss of appetite, some fever, cold in the head, frequent sneezing, watery eyes, dry cough and a hot skin. The disease takes effect nine or ten days after exposure. {335}

HOME TREATMENT.--Measles is not a dangerous disease in the child, but in an adult it is often very serious. In childhood very little medicine is necessary, but exposure must be carefully avoided, and the patient kept in bed, in a moderately warm room. The diet should be light and nourishing. Keep the room dark. If the eruption does not come out promptly, apply hot baths.

COMMON TREATMENT.--Two teaspoonfuls of spirits of nitre, one teaspoonful paregoric, one wineglassful of camphor water. Mix thoroughly, and give a teaspoonful in half a tea-cupful of water every two hours. To relieve the cough, if troublesome, flax seed tea, or infusion of slippery-elm bark, with a little lemon juice to render more palatable, will be of benefit.

_CHICKEN POX._

DEFINITION.--This is a contagious, eruptive disease, which resembles to some extent small-pox. The pointed vesicles or pimples have a depression in the center in chicken-pox, and in small pox they do not.

SYMPTOMS.--Nine to seventeen days elapse after the exposure, before symptoms appear. Slight fever, a sense of sickness, the appearance of scattered pimples, some itching and heat. The pimples rapidly change into little blisters, filled with a watery fluid. After five or six days they disappear.

HOME TREATMENT.--Milk diet, and avoid all kinds of meat. Keep the bowels open, and avoid all exposure to cold. Large vesicles on the face should be punctured early, and irritation by rubbing should be avoided.

_HOME TREATMENT OF DIPHTHERIA._

DEFINITION.--Acute, specific, constitutional disease, with local manifestations in the throat, mouth, nose, larynx, windpipe, and glands of the neck. The disease is infectious, but not very contagious under the proper precautions. It is a disease of childhood, though adults sometimes contract it. Many of the best physicians of the day consider true or membranous croup to be due to this diphtheritic membranous disease thus located in the larynx or trachea. {336}

SYMPTOMS.--Symptoms vary according to the severity of the attack. Chills, fever, headache, languor, loss of appetite, stiffness of neck, with tenderness about the angles of the jaw, soreness of the throat, pain in the ear, aching of the limbs, loss of strength, coated tongue, swelling of the neck, and offensive breath; lymphatic glands on side of neck enlarged and tender. The throat is first to be seen red and swollen, then covered with grayish white patches, which spread, and a false membrane is found on the mucous membrane. If the nose is attacked, there will be an offensive discharge, and the child will breathe through the mouth. If the larynx or throat are involved, the voice will become hoarse, and a croupy cough, with difficult breathing, shows that the air passage to the lungs is being obstructed by the false membrane.

HOME TREATMENT.--Isolate the patient, to prevent the spread of the disease. Diet should be of the most nutritious character, as milk, eggs, broths, and oysters. Give at intervals of every two or three hours. If patient refuses to swallow, from the pain caused by the effort, a nutrition injection must be resorted to. Inhalations of steam and hot water, and allowing the patient to suck pellets of ice, will give relief. Sponges dipped in hot water, and applied to the angles of the jaw, are beneficial. Inhalations of lime, made by slaking freshly burnt lime in a vessel, and directing the vapor to the child's mouth, by means of a newspaper, or similar contrivance. Flour of sulphur, blown into the back of the mouth and throat by means of a goose quill, has been highly recommended. Frequent gargling of the throat and mouth, with a solution of lactic acid, strong enough to taste sour, will help to keep the parts clean, and correct the foul breath. If there is great prostration, with the nasal passage affected, or hoarseness and difficult breathing, a physician should be called at once.

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DISEASES OF WOMEN.

_DISORDERS OF THE MENSES._

1. SUPPRESSION OF, OR SCANTY MENSES.

[Illustration]

HOME TREATMENT.--Attention to the diet, and exercise in the open air to promote the general health. Some bitter tonic, taken with fifteen grains of dialyzed iron, well diluted, after meals, if patient is pale and debilitated. A hot foot bath is often all that is necessary.

2. PROFUSE MENSTRUATION.

HOME TREATMENT.--Avoid highly seasoned food, and the use of spirituous liquors; also excessive fatigue, either physical or mental. To check the flow, patient should be kept quiet, and allowed to sip cinnamon tea during the period.

3. PAINFUL MENSTRUATION.

HOME TREATMENT.--Often brought on by colds. Treat by warm hip baths, hot drinks (avoiding spirituous liquors), and heat applied to the back and extremities. A teaspoonful of the fluid extract of viburnum will sometimes

## act like a charm.

_HOW TO CURE SWELLED AND SORE BREASTS._

Take and boil a quantity of chamomile, and apply the hot fomentations. This dissolves the knot, and reduce the swelling and soreness. {338}

_LEUCORRHEA OR WHITES._

HOME TREATMENT.--This disorder, if not arising from some abnormal condition of the pelvic organs, can easily be cured by patient taking the proper amount of exercise and good nutritious food, avoiding tea and coffee. An injection every evening of one teaspoonful of Pond's Extract in a cup of hot water, after first cleansing the vagina well with a quart of warm water, is a simple but effective remedy.

_INFLAMMATION OF THE WOMB._

HOME TREATMENT.--When in the acute form this disease is ushered in by a chill, followed by fever, and pain in the region of the womb. Patient should be placed in bed, and a brisk purgative given, hot poultices applied to the abdomen, and the feet and hands kept warm. If the symptoms do not subside, a physician should be consulted.

_HYSTERIA._

DEFINITION.--A functional disorder of the nervous system of which it is impossible to speak definitely; characterized by disturbance of the reason, will, imagination, and emotions, with sometimes convulsive attacks that resemble epilepsy.

SYMPTOMS.--Fits of laughter, and tears without apparent cause; emotions easily excited; mind often melancholy and depressed; tenderness along the spine; disturbances of digestion, with hysterical convulsions, and other nervous phenomena.

HOME TREATMENT.--Some healthy and pleasant employment should be urged upon women afflicted with this disease. Men are also subject to it, though not so frequently. Avoid excessive fatigue and mental worry; also stimulants and opiates. Plenty of good food and fresh air will do more good than drugs.

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Falling of the Womb.

CAUSES.--The displacement of the womb usually is the result of too much childbearing, miscarriages, abortions, or the taking of strong medicines to bring about menstruation. It may also be the result in getting up too quickly from the childbed. There are, however, other causes, such as a general breaking down of the health.

SYMPTOMS.--If the womb has fallen forward it presses against the bladder, causing the patient to urinate frequently. If the womb has fallen back, it presses against the rectum, and constipation is the result with often severe pain at stool. If the womb descends into the vagina there is a feeling of heaviness. All forms of displacement produce pain in the back, with an irregular and scanty menstrual flow and a dull and exhausted feeling.

HOME TREATMENT.--Improve the general health. Take some preparation of cod-liver oil, hot injections (of a teaspoonful of powdered alum with a pint of water), a daily sitz-bath, and a regular morning bath three times a week will be found very beneficial. There, however, can be no remedy unless the womb is first replaced to the proper position. This must be done by a competent physician who should frequently be consulted.

[Illustration]

{340}

Menstruation.

1. ITS IMPORTANCE.--Menstruation plays a momentous part in the female economy; indeed, unless it be in every way properly and duly performed, it is neither possible that a lady can be well, nor is it at all probable that she will conceive. The large number of barren, of delicate, and of hysterical women there are in America arises mainly from menstruation not being duly and properly performed.

2. THE BOUNDARY-LINE.--Menstruation--"the periods"--the appearance of the catamenia or the menses--is then one of the most important epochs in a girl's life. It is the boundary-line, the landmark between childhood and womanhood; it is the threshold, so to speak, of a woman's life. Her body now develops and expands, and her mental capacity enlarges and improves.

3. THE COMMENCEMENT OF MENSTRUATION.--A good beginning at this time is peculiarly necessary, or a girl's health is sure to suffer, and different organs of the body--her lungs, for instance, may become imperiled. A healthy continuation, at regular periods, is also much needed, or conception, when she is married, may not occur. Great attention and skillful management is required to ward off many formidable diseases, which at the close of menstruation--at "the change of life"--are more likely than at any time to be developed. If she marry when very young, marriage weakens her system, and prevents a full development of her body. Moreover, such an one is, during the progress of her labor, prone to convulsions--which is a very serious childbed complication.

4. EARLY MARRIAGES.--Statistics prove that twenty per cent--20 in every 100--of females who marry are under age, and that such early marriages are often followed by serious, and sometimes even by fatal consequences to mother, to progeny, or to both. Parents ought, therefore, to persuade their daughters not to marry until they are of age--twenty-one; they should point out to them the risk and danger likely to ensue if their advice be not followed; they should impress upon their minds the old adage:

"Early wed, Early dead."

5. TIME TO MARRY.--Parents who have the real interest and happiness of their daughters at heart, ought, in consonance with the laws of physiology, to discountenance marriage before twenty; and the nearer the girls arrive at {341} the age of twenty-five before the consummation of this important rite, the greater the probability that, physically and morally, they will be protected against those risks which precocious marriages bring in their train.

6. FEEBLE PARENTS.--Feeble parents have generally feeble children; diseased parents, diseased children; nervous parents, nervous children;--"like begets like." It is sad to reflect, that the innocent have to suffer, not only for the guilty, but for the thoughtless and inconsiderate. Disease and debility are thus propagated from one generation to another and the American race becomes woefully deteriorated.

7. TIME.--Menstruation in this country usually commences at the ages of from thirteen to sixteen, sometimes earlier; occasionally as early as eleven or twelve; at other times later, and not until a girl be seventeen or eighteen years of age. Menstruation in large towns is supposed to commence at an earlier period than in the country, and earlier in luxurious than in simple life.

8. CHARACTER.--The menstrual fluid is not exactly blood, although, both in appearance and properties, it much resembles it; yet it never in the healthy state clots as blood does. It is a secretion of the womb, and, when healthy, ought to be of a bright red color, in appearance very much like the blood from a recently cut finger. The menstrual fluid ought not, as before observed, clot. If it does, a lady, during "her periods," suffers intense pain; moreover, she seldom conceives until the clotting has ceased.

9. MENSTRUATION DURING NURSING.--Some ladies, though comparatively few, menstruate during nursing; when they do, it may be considered not as the rule, but as the exception. It is said in such instances, that they are more likely to conceive; and no doubt they are, as menstruation is an indication of a proneness to conception. Many persons have an idea that when a woman, during lactation, menstruates, her milk is both sweeter and purer. Such is an error. Menstruation during nursing is more likely to weaken the mother, and consequently to deteriorate her milk, and thus make it less sweet and less pure.

10. VIOLENT EXERCISE.--During "the monthly periods" violent exercise is injurious; iced drinks and acid beverages are improper; and bathing in the sea, and bathing the feet in cold water, and cold baths are dangerous; indeed, at such times as these, no risks should be run, and no experiments should, for the moment, be permitted, otherwise serious consequences will, in all probability, ensue. {342}