LA GRIPPE.

1. Small pills made of asafetida, and taken three times a day are recommended as a remedy for the grippe. Actea racemosa has been used with great success in doses of twenty drops of the tincture every three or four hours.

2. Some use a tea of red pepper, or of cayenne, with great success. The dose is a tablespoonful in a cup of hot water, drank slowly, before each meal and on retiring. Larger doses in proportion to the intensity of the disease. Sponging the face, temples and neck with water as hot as can be borne relieves the headache of grippe.

RECTAL INJECTIONS.

An elastic-ball syringe, capable of holding the whole amount of fluid to be injected at one time, with a fine elastic pipe, is the instrument that should be used. The pipe previously warmed and lubricated with oil or fresh lard, should be gently introduced into the bowel with hardly any pressure, but allowing it almost to find its own way in for about one and a half inches, in a direction, inclining very slightly to the left side of the body. Then with one full and gradual compression of the syringe the whole amount of the contained fluid should be injected into the bowel, and the instrument then be slowly and easily withdrawn. The amount of fluid to be injected for an infant is about two tablespoonfuls; for a child from one to five years, six tablespoonfuls; and from five to ten from eight to twelve tablespoonfuls.

Care with Injections.—The too frequent use of injections is not good; the muscularity and tone of the bowel is thereby relaxed and a feeble and sluggish action induced.

Purgative Biscuit.—A good purgative biscuit is made as follows:

Powdered jalap, one teaspoonful; flour, eight tablespoonfuls; sugar, twelve tablespoonfuls; powdered ginger, half teaspoonful; make twelve biscuits; one may be eaten once or twice a day according to effect desired. For children three years old and infants one-third the quantity.

A Simple Laxative.—A simple method is to take a tablespoonful of tincture of aloes and two tablespoonfuls of soap liniment; mix and rub over the bowels daily for five minutes, when regularity of action will be produced.

Soap Injection.—Cut a piece of yellow soap two or three inches long and of the thickness of the little finger, making the same pointed at one end. If this is introduced into the bowel and held there for a few moments it will produce a good evacuation. A camel's-hair brush, dipped into glycerine, and introduced into the bowel is often most effective in producing an evacuation in a few moments.

EXCESSIVE MENSTRUATION.

Remedy—1. The juice of one lemon taken three times daily will stop excessive menstruation when all other remedies fail, and regulate the system preparatory to the next flow.

2. Tea of comfrey root boiled in sweet milk and drank in half-teacupful quantities three times daily will check menses when too profuse. Sucking the juice of one or two lemons is a valuable remedy for excessive menstrual flow.

LEUCORRHEA OR WHITES.

Remedy—1. Oregon grape-root has been recommended as a curative of leucorrhea or whites. Make a strong decoction by boiling an ounce of the root in a pint and a half of water down to one pint. Take a wineglassful four times a day.

2. A decoction of common tea, used as an injection twice daily, is found very beneficial.

3. Cleanse the parts effectually with warm water by means of an injection. Then inject a full syringe of a mixture made by dropping a tablespoonful of extract of witch hazel (Pond's is best) into warm water.

4. Yarrow-root tea, in doses of a teacupful three times a day, gives effectual relief.

CONSTIPATION.

Remedy—1. A tea made of slippery-elm and drunk in half-teacupful doses several times daily, will alleviate constipation, or in excessive cases an enema of the same will give instant relief.

2. Take two teaspoonfuls of flaxseed and pour over it a cup of boiling water. Strain and drink half a teacupful every morning before breakfast.

FALLING OF THE WOMB.

Remedy.—A mild infusion of white-oak bark, or of alum, or of tannin, used in quantities of a pint as a douche, will often give immediate relief. Peach leaves, mullein leaves and hops made into a tea and used twice a day as an injection often cures when other remedies fail.

CARBUNCLES.

Symptoms.—They generally appear on the back, or back of the neck in the form of hard, heated swellings, accompanied by a burning sensation and throbbing pain. The skin assumes a purplish hue. After a few days suppuration begins, and perhaps from one, two or three different parts. The first, or outer, suppuration resembles that of a boil, but there is at the base a hard, gristly core which requires considerable pressure to squeeze out. If large, or numerous, they are accompanied with high fever, or delirium may set in, attended with great prostration, or even death.

Causes.—As they seek a spot where vitality is least active, so they proceed from a debilitated condition of body and disordered blood, such as follow chronic diseases, fatigue, or change of habits of life.

Treatment 1. To draw or ripen them, a poultice of poppy leaves is very efficacious.

2. Equally effective is a poultice made of sassafras root and slippery elm bark, boiled together, and the decoction thickened by stirring in corn-meal.

3. Linseed and slippery elm decoction, mixed with a little charcoal and yeast, used as a warm application, or lotion, seems to lessen pain and inflammation.

4. Carbuncles which head slowly should be opened with a knife, not by sticking, but by two transverse incisions. Menthol ethereal solution, 10 to 50 per cent., applied by camel's-hair brush, aborts boils, carbuncles and inflammatory gatherings.

HIVES.

Causes.—These irritating visitations, generally upon children, are mostly due to indigestion, or partaking of certain disagreeing foods.

Treatment 1. To allay itching, rub with flour; buckwheat is the best.

2. Sassafras or saffron tea is a good internal remedy, since it promotes perspiration and lessens irritation.

3. Bathing with diluted vinegar is a good treatment.

4. Tea of the common nettle, or a tincture of same taken in six-drop doses three or four times a day, is an efficacious treatment.

CROUP.

A most insidious and sometimes fatal affection if treatment is not immediately applied. Turpentine stupes applied to front of throat and breast have proved most effective, saving many lives thereby. The stupes should be made with one-third turpentine and two-thirds water, as hot as can he borne, and apply the same on flannel cloths every few moments until relief is obtained. It quickly acts upon the breathing tubes, cleaning them out, and enables the little sufferer to breathe easily, clearly and with safety.

VOMITING.

A distressing and harassing affection, induced by various causes. But, no matter what the cause, mustard applied as follows is the sovereign remedy. A mustard plaster, made with two or three teaspoonfuls of common mustard, with the white of one egg (don't use water or vinegar in mixing the mustard), and apply the same to front of throat and directly over the pit of stomach, will quickly relieve the most obstinate case of vomiting, caused either by biliousness, nervousness, indigestion, and so forth.

TOOTHACHE.

A most painful affection caused by cold or decay of teeth affecting the nerve which supplies the same. Almost immediate relief can be obtained by making pressure upon the root of the nerve just below the temple, opposite the centre of the ear. Quick relief is also obtained by placing a drop or two of oil of cloves upon a small piece of cotton and introducing the same into the cavity of the affected tooth. The parts should be kept warm either by application of a poultice with a little laudanum added or by means of the water-bag.

NEURALGIA.

An affection of the nerves, causing at times most excruciating pain and suffering. Cold is its most frequent cause, although it may sometimes arise from disease of the sheath or covering of the nerves. Its most frequent seat is in the fifth pair of nerves which supplies the head, face, arms, and so forth. A quick method of alleviating the same is to make pressure upon this nerve at its origin, just over and below the temple. Great relief is obtained by warm fomentations, especially one made from the leaves of the eucalyptus plant. The fomentation is made by adding about one and a half ounces of the leaves to a pint of hot water, and apply fomentations of same to part until relief is obtained.

FELONS.

Symptoms.—These painful inflammations usually occur on the fingers or hands. They are seated at the bone and begin with throbbing pain and great soreness and inflammation.

Treatment 1. A good drawing poultice is made of brown soap and unslacked lime, into which a little alcohol has been introduced.

2. The white of an egg and salt make an application which sometimes serves to scatter the inflammation.

3. Spinal cord of a beef is efficacious in curing a felon.

4. Immersing the afflicted finger or hand in diluted lye will serve to diminish pain and inflammation, and if repeated frequently may eventuate in scattering the felon.

LIGHTNING STROKE.

Place the victim in a current of fresh air, dash cold water on face and chest; if body be cold use lively friction with hands or flannel. Manipulate arms and use artificial respiration as in drowning cases. (See Drowning.) If revival ensue give stimulants—whiskey, spirits of ammonia, a teaspoonful of the former every few minutes, or twenty drops of the ammonia in a tablespoonful of water. An electric current from a home battery applied to spine and back part of the head is useful, before signs of life appear. Means for the recovery of one stricken with lightning should not be discontinued till at least an hour has elapsed after the visitation, as many supposedly fatal cases have been returned to life.

BAKING CURE FOR RHEUMATISM.

The application of hot dry air as a therapeutic agent is regularly practiced in an increasing number of cases of gout, rheumatism, inflammation, obesity, enemia, and all forms of pain.

The patient is placed in a specially devised oven which covers the entire body except the head, and it is said that a temperature of 400 degrees Fahrenheit can be borne without danger. Sips of cold water are given during the process. It is claimed that persons have been able to walk after years of affliction with deforming rheumatism, and in certain cases chronic forms of disease have been cured.


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