Part 22

Spasmodic asthma may be relieved by the same treatment. It often comes on when lying down, and cold towels applied as above directed will generally relieve. Fomentations must be given to the feet and legs, if any feeling of chill is felt.

Where there is _difficulty in breathing_ on lying down, usually the heart is at fault. Sometimes the heart is all right, and this hard breathing is nervous, caused by too sudden lying down. To lie down, propped up with pillows, which may be removed one by one, is often sufficient to cure it. The treatment in the morning as in Night Coughs will also greatly help.

Another set of night troubles are such as arise from unwise use of foods or drinks before going to bed. Tea taken at or near bedtime will often cause sleeplessness, and will be apt also to give spasmodic asthma; so will all indigestible foods. These overpower weary organs that need rest and sleep, and not food. Most people will do well to take their last meal four hours before retiring. Taking supper is a habit, and in many cases a very bad one.

Night Sweats.--This distressing symptom, which accompanies various illnesses, can in most cases be easily cured. The whole skin is to be sponged over at bedtime with CAYENNE LOTION (_see_). This is best done under the bed-clothes. Acetic acid, the effective essence in vinegar, has an astonishing power in healing and stimulating the skin. When it is assisted by cayenne its healing power is very great indeed. The nerves are stimulated, the too open pores closed, the skin cleansed, and the whole system invigorated by such a mixture, and as a result the night sweats disappear. Even where the case is hopeless, much suffering may be prevented by the use of this mixture. In conjunction with other treatment, its use may even turn the scale towards recovery.

Noise and Disease.--Perhaps nothing shows more the lack of human feeling in many people than the manner in which they inflict sore distress on the sick and dying by means of noise. Moreover, recovery is retarded, and has sometimes been wholly prevented, by nothing but a _noise_. It must be understood that talking, and also singing, which are delightful to some, become intolerable pain to the delicate and weak. They really are _worn out_ by them. And the wearing out is _real_: it is a destruction of nerve substance, when the nerve of the patient is already too feeble. Shutting doors violently, and the endless "house noises," must be avoided. Even a long, loud prayer at the bedside of the sick is utterly out of place. It may become necessary, in order to prevent such abuses, to exclude from the sick-room some who will be greatly offended thereby; but courage to defend a patient against well-meaning intruders is one essential qualification of a good nurse. Oil doors that _squeak_, fasten windows that _rattle_, but above all keep quiet the tongues that _clatter_. Let all whispering in the sick one's hearing be avoided. Speak quietly but distinctly, so that the patient may not think you are hiding anything from him. Wrap the coals in pieces of paper, so that they can be put on the fire by hand, avoiding the noise of shovel or tongs.

No one has a right to do what distresses others, and especially when they are sick. This principle should guide action. Acting thus will give untold rest and ease to the troubled.

Nostrils, The.--The disease called Polypus, affecting the mouth or nostril with growths which are usually removed by force, is one of those troubles curable by proper use of vinegar or weak acetic acid. The extraction of the Polypi is painful, and we have ourselves seen them so completely cured, that it is a pity not to make very widely known a method of avoiding extraction. A small glass syringe or a "nasal douche" (rubber is best) should be got, such as may easily be used for syringing the nostrils, or gums, if the growth be on these. Syringe the growths well with vinegar or ACETIC ACID (_see_), so diluted with water as only _very slightly_ to smart when it is applied. Use this slightly warm, and force it well up the nostril, so that it goes even back into the throat. This should be done for a considerable time: not so as to feel painful, but long enough to produce a decided effect, which remains on ceasing. Dry the nostrils with a little soft lint or clean rag, and force in a little fine almond oil. Do all this twice a day for a fortnight at least. In a bad case, a BRAN POULTICE (_see_) may be applied to the back of the head and neck, coming down over the spine between the shoulders.

Similar growths on other membranes, if accessible, may be cured by acid in a similar way.

This treatment is excellent for an ordinary cold in the head.

Nourishment.--Nothing is more required in healing than properly to _nourish_ the enfeebled body. In its commencement proper nourishment demands a proper mixture of food and saliva. In fever, if there be little or no saliva present, food requiring much saliva to fit it for digestion only injures. This is the case with so-called _rich_ foods, especially. Excessive thirst usually marks this deficiency of saliva. Always consider carefully the flow of saliva before feeding a patient in a weak state. Get the mouth to "water" somewhat before giving food. We have seen a cold cloth changed several times over the stomach start the flow of saliva almost miraculously, relieving the thirst, and prepare for nourishment which could not be taken before.

Going further into the matter, we see that very likely the stomach requires assistance to dispose of even well-salivated food. There may be a lack of gastric juice. In this case, frequent and small quantities of hot water supplied to the stomach will greatly help it. A wineglassful of hot water taken every ten minutes for two, four, or ten hours will be sufficient (_see_ Digestion; Indigestion). It is well to think ten times of the readiness of the system to digest, for once of the food to be taken. If the stomach be either burning hot or cold and chilly, let it be cooled or warmed, as the case may be. Either use cold towels or give hot water as above, as the case demands. When it is brought into something like a natural state of feeling, you may then give food. The hot water will often not only prepare the stomach, but will start the flow of saliva in the mouth, and that even when the cooling cloth has failed to do so.

A medical man will, at times, forbid water, however thirsty the patient may be. He is not unlikely to be labouring under a serious mistake. It may be just the want of water which is causing the very symptoms which he thinks to cure by withholding it. We never saw anything but suffering arise from withholding water from the thirsty.

Milk is a prime element in nourishing the weak. Mixed with its own bulk of boiling water, or even with twice as much, it is immensely more easy to digest. The simple water is of vast importance, and the milk mixed with boiling water is quite a different substance for digestion from the fresh pure milk. It is better to have a teaspoonful of milk and water really digested than a pint of rich milk overloading the stomach.

Many persons put lime-water into the milk to make it digestible. In doing so they put a difficulty in the way, in the shape of the lime. If one tries to wash his hands in "hard" water, he sees how unfit that water is to do the proper work of water in the blood and tissues of the body. Now, it is not difficult to meet this evil where the only water to be had has a great deal of lime in solution. Boiling this water makes it deposit much of its lime. If a very, very small bit of soda is mixed with it in the boiling, it lets down its lime more quickly and completely.

Alcoholic drinks--wine, porter, or ale--are often given as means of nourishment. They are hurtful in the extreme, as the spirit contained in them spoils, so far as it acts, both the saliva and the gastric juice. Rum and milk, sack whey, and other such preparations are equally bad, and have killed many a patient.

While suitable nourishment is necessary for the sick, great care should be taken to avoid giving too much. Often the amount of food the patient requires or can assimilate is _exceedingly small_. Injudicious attempts to "keep up the strength" by forcing down food that cannot be digested often destroy the little that remains, and remove the only hope of cure. (_See_ also Assimilation; Biscuits and Water; Blood; Bread; Buttermilk; Child-Bearing; Constipation; Diet; Drinks; Dyspepsia; Foods; Heartburn; Infants' Food.)

Nourishment, Cold in.--If a person is in fever, and is burning with internal heat, a little bit of ice, sucked in the mouth, gives great relief. The relief is got in this way: the melted ice, in the form of water, is little in bulk in proportion to the heat which is absorbed in melting it. To absorb the same heat by means of merely cold water, would imply a great amount of water, and an inconvenient filling of the stomach. The heat used up in melting the small bit of ice is great, and the amount of water exceedingly small. This gives benefit without inconvenience; hence, to suck a bit of ice is to be much preferred in such a case to taking a drink of cold water.

Within proper limits, beyond all question, cold is, in certain cases, essential to nourishment. For example, in a case of thirst such as we have noticed, the heat of the stomach extending to the mouth is drying up all the juices that should go to secure digestion and assimilation. The saliva is dried up, and the gastric juice equally so. Cold is applied to the pit of the stomach (not ice, but a moderate degree of repeated cold), and the result is, these juices begin to flow. Nourishment is the consequence, and very clearly, in such a case, it is the consequence of cold. In other words, it is the result of reducing the excessive internal heat, and leaving something like the proper degree behind.

The place which cold has in nourishing is, so to speak, negative--that is, it is useful only in reducing overheating. But when we remember how a frosty morning sharpens appetites and makes the cheeks glow with ruddy health, we see that such reduction of overheat is not infrequently required.

Nourishment, Heat in.--Heat is absorbed in building up the bodily tissues, and given off when they are disintegrated. To rightly understand this is of great importance in all treatment. When a living substance is growing, it demands heat. An illustration of this is the sun's heat causing what we call "growing weather." Again, where substances are breaking up, as in burning wood, heat is given out. In the stomach, a certain amount of heat is needed during digestion. If it is not given, indigestion ensues. To swallow ice, where the stomach has already insufficient heat, is then great folly. On the other hand, to take hot water is to do the very thing which gives the stomach what it needs, and so to relieve the indigestion. Many times, when the stomach simply stands still from lack of energy, it will move immediately on getting a glass of hot water to help it. Similarly, a little genial heat assists other failing organs. As we have shown how cold diminishes the excessive action of inflammation and fever, so we now point out that if you can find out what organs are feeble and acting insufficiently, and stimulate them with gentle heat, you are on the way to a cure.

Nursing Over.--Few vital processes are more remarkable than that by which food fitted for adults becomes in the mother's breast food fit for the little infant. In nursing it is well to remember that all food is not equally fit to be so changed. Well-boiled porridge, of either oat or wheaten meal, is probably as good as can be got. Malt liquor, though causing a large flow of milk, most seriously deteriorates its quality, and should be entirely avoided. But in this article we think chiefly of the mother, and of the necessary drain of blood and vital force which she bears in nursing. In most cases this drain is easily borne, in others the child is fed at the mother's expense. The supply of power, in such cases, is not equal to the loss of it in feeding the child, and the reserve in the mother's body is slowly used up. She becomes thin and pale, and her nervous system begins to suffer. When this is the case, either means must be used to increase her vital power, or nursing must at once be given up. Of course, where she may have had insufficient or unsuitable food, a change of diet may work a cure; but, as a rule, the drain of nursing will have to be stopped. To help her restoration, whether she ceases to nurse or not, use the following mixture and treatment: Boil a stick of best liquorice for half-an-hour in a quart of good soft water. Add one quarter of an ounce of camomile flowers, and boil for another half-hour. Keep the water up to the quantity by adding _boiling_ water as required. Strain the mixture, and give a dessertspoonful thrice a day before meals. If the dessertspoonful be found too much, a teaspoonful may be taken. The patient, if any heart trouble is felt, should go to bed early, and have the feet and legs fomented, and cold cloths pressed over the heart. This may be done for three or four nights. After this, each night for a fortnight the back should be well washed with SOAP (_see_) and hot water, and rubbed with vinegar and hot olive oil. Let each be dried off before the other is applied.

Oil, Olive.--A little oil only should be applied to the skin at once. Any such _smearing_ as dirties the clothes or bedclothes is quite unnecessary.

Since the first edition of these papers was published, the use of oil in the "massage" treatment has become so widely known that methods of rubbing are better understood, and its results more appreciated. Hence it is now easier to procure pure oil, and our readers should be able to get it cheaply at any first-class grocer's.

Opium.--_See_ Narcotics.

Oranges.--Some things regarding this useful fruit require to be noted by those using them in sickness. To eat the whole substance of an orange except the outer rind is to give the digestive system some hard work. We have known most serious stomach disturbance caused to the healthy by doing so. Some parts of the inner rind and partitions of the fruit act almost like poison. These should always be rejected. The juice is most beneficial. It is best given to patients by squeezing the orange into a glass, and _straining_ it through muslin into another glass. Add its own bulk of water and a teaspoonful of sugar, if liked. This may be taken warm or cold, and will do where even milk and water cannot be taken. (_See_ Drinks).

"Outstrikes."--These appear on the skin from various causes. In the case of infants, they often appear on the head and face during teething.

An experienced medical man is cautious in the extreme of quickly healing the distressed skin. He is afraid of "driving in" the eruption on the brain. Perhaps he refuses to do anything whatever to heal the head. From what we have seen, however, even in the worst cases, when head and face and neck were one great sore, we feel assured that there is no need why this distress should be continued at all. It may be, at least in many cases, safely and not very slowly healed.

The _whole_ skin of the infant must be brought into vigorous and healthy action. The head at first need not be touched; but the entire skin not affected should be sponged with warm vinegar, and then dried, rubbed with warm olive oil, and this wiped off carefully and gently, so far as it does not adhere to the skin under the soft dry towel. Quite enough remains to do all the good required; and if more is left on, a chilliness and nastiness are felt, which prejudice many against the use of it altogether.

It is well, in many cases, not to touch the child with _water_ or _soap_. The vinegar and oil cleanse the skin and do all that is required. Then vinegar very much diluted should be used warm to apply with a soft rag to the sores. Take a teaspoonful of vinegar in a breakfastcupful of warm water. If this causes the child to cry when applied, then dilute still further. Vinegar weak enough to cause hardly any feeling when it touches the sore, will _heal_; stronger vinegar will _injure_.

We have known a nurse try to heal an outstricken face by means of good vinegar at its full strength. She was instructed to use the vinegar very much diluted, but fancied it would heal faster if much stronger. She might just as well have fancied that it is better to put one's cold hands into the fire than to hold them at some distance when wishing to warm them. The child's face was made greatly worse, of course, and the cure abandoned. It is therefore necessary to urge that a strength of acid which secures only the most gentle sensation of smarting is essential to cure. The weak vinegar is first applied to the outer and less fiery parts of the outstrike. Try to heal from this inwards, by gradual advances from day to day. On the less affected parts the weak acid may be applied twice a day; on the sorer parts only when itching is so distressing as to demand it.

We have seen a child whose head, face, and neck were one distressing sore; we have taken the cloth with the diluted vinegar and daubed a square inch or so of the skin on which the fiery eruption was so full, and in less than two minutes we have seen the colour change into a healthy pink, and remain that colour when the olive oil was applied. The child's sores yielded gradually, till the whole illness was removed.

Sometimes such eruptions, in adults as well as children, arise from suppressed perspiration, or from the perspiration being of an acrid and irritating nature. It is sometimes apparently the result of the rubbing off of a little of the skin, or it comes on without any known accident. For a time it seems scarcely worth noticing, and is consequently neglected; but gradually it spreads on the surface and gives uneasiness, especially after the patient has been some time in bed. It goes on till a large portion of the skin from the knee to the ankle is reddened and roughened with a moist eruption. Now remedies of various kinds are tried, but the evil gets worse and worse. The person affected is often a struggling mother or widow, who has to keep on her feet all day in anxious toil, and neither gets very good food during the day nor proper rest during the night. Month after month goes past, and no relief comes. The positive agony which such persons suffer is incredible to those who have not experienced anything of the kind.

Here the great difficulty often is to get the patient the very chief condition for cure--that is, perfect rest for the affected limb. If this can in any way be secured, all else is comparatively plain sailing. But this is sometimes impossible: the children may not be in a position to be left, or the little business cannot be allowed to die, as it would in a month's time if not attended to, or some other hindrance is in the way. We must just do the best in the circumstances. We shall say that we are compelled to do without the rest, probably also without certain other things. Rest is very desirable, and so is a gentle rubbing all over the body, first with warm vinegar and then with olive oil, but there is perhaps no one capable of doing such a thing whose services can be secured. It is easy to "order" very useful processes, but among many who would not be exactly called "poor people" it is not easy to have the "order" carried out. We must often do without this double rubbing, and yet cure the diseased skin of the afflicted limb. Let the reader remember that it is no matter of choice that we dispense with the rest and the rubbing. If they are possible, by all means let them be taken advantage of to the utmost.