Mother's Remedies - Thomas Jefferson Ritter (guided reading books .txt) 📗

it. Heat it through thoroughly with hot cloths. If used thoroughly and the cold is taken in time will prevent pneumonia.

4. Lungs, Mullein for Congestion.—"The mullein leaves may be purchased at any drug store or gathered in the fields. Make a tea of the leaves by steeping them. Add enough water to one tablespoon mullein to make a pint, which will be three doses, taken three times a day." This is a very good remedy.

5. Lungs, Salve for Weak.—

    "Bees Wax 1 ounce
    Rosin 1 ounce
    Camphor Gum 1 ounce
    Lard about the size of an egg."

The beeswax forms sort of a coating and may remain on for several hours.

This is very good.

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PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT FOR LUNGS.—The home treatment should be to put the patient to bed and try to produce sweating. This will cause the blood to leave the congested lung and return to the full regular circulation. By doing this, you not only relieve the congested lung, but also the pain. If the patient is stout and strong, give him the "corn sweat" under La Grippe (see index); or you can put bottles of hot water about the patient. Use fruit jars, wrap cloths around them so that you will not burn the patient. Always put one to the feet. If you have a rubber water bag, fill that and put it to his affected side over the pain. After you get him into a sweat you can remove a little, of the sweating remedy at a time and when all are removed give him a tepid water sponging. By this time the physician will be at hand. If you give medicine you can put fifteen drops of the Tincture of Aconite in a glass one-half full of water and give two teaspoonfuls of this every fifteen minutes for four doses. Then give it every one-half hour. Water can be given often, but in small quantities; plain milk alone, or diluted, or beaten with eggs will make a good diet and keep up the strength.

Fomentations.—Cloths wrung out of hot hop tea are often applied to the affected part with good effect. Be careful about wetting the patient. Flaxseed poultices are used.

If used they must be moist and hot. Some doctors are opposed to them. An antiphlogistine poultice is good. Apply it hot. For children you can grease the whole side of the chest, back and front, with camphor and lard and put over that an absorbent cotton jacket. In the early life of the country, home treatment was necessary. Men and women were posted on herbs, etc. Teas made of them were freely and successfully used. A great mistake made was the indiscriminate use of lobelia in too large doses. We have learned that the hot herb drinks in proper doses are of help. Teas made of boneset, hoarhound, pennyroyal, ginger, catnip, hops, slippery elm, etc., were good and are now. They produced the desired result—sweating—and relieved the congestion of the internal organs and re-established the external or (peripheral) circulation. So in the home treatment of pneumonia, etc., if you are so situated that you cannot get a physician use teas internally for sweating, fomentations upon the painful part and if done properly and not too excessively, they will accomplish the desired result. With the corn sweat, I have saved many lives.

ERYSIPELAS.—Erysipelas is an infectious disease, and it is usually caused by a germ which we call "streptococcus pyogenes." The disease shows itself by its local symptoms, pain, swelling, etc., and also by general or constitutional symptoms such as fever, headache, etc., as hereafter given.

Causes.—It is a disease that occurs at any time, and is sometimes epidemic, that is, attacks many persons at a time, like La Grippe. It occurs more often in the spring; it is contagious, and can be carried by a third person or in bedding, etc.

Symptoms.—The type that appears upon the face is the most common. The incubation lasts from three to seven days and it usually comes suddenly with a chill, followed by an active fever and with the local inflammation. In some cases the local condition appears first. There is at first redness, usually of the bridge of the nose and it rapidly spreads to the cheeks, eyes, ears, etc. It is red, shiny hot, drawing, but with a distinct margin at its edges, showing how much skin is inflamed. It may take the form of vesicles. The eyelids may be so swollen as to close, the face and scalp greatly swollen with watery swelling of the eyelids, lips, eyes, ears, etc. The glands under the jaw may become enlarged. The general or constitutional symptoms may be severe. The fever may rise to 104 to 106 and terminates suddenly. The parts that were first affected become pale and more normal, as other parts are involved. It occurs also on other parts of the body. A sting of an insect sometimes looks like it at first; but it does not spread like erysipelas. It seems to me to be more dangerous around the head.

[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 221]

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Erysipelas, Slippery Elm Bark for.—"Slippery elm used as a wash and taken as a drink." Slippery elm is a very good remedy for this on account of its soothing effect to the affected parts. It is very good to take internally, as it cleanses the system by acting on the bowels and kidneys.

2. Erysipelas, Bean Poultices for.—"White navy beans boiled soft and applied as a poultice to the affected parts and renewed frequently is a sure cure for erysipelas if taken in time." This is a very good and effective poultice, but care should be taken not to use it too long, as the parts will become too soft and might slough.

3. Erysipelas, Soda Wash for.—"Put about a tablespoonful of baking soda in one pint of water and bathe parts several times a day," This is an extremely simple remedy for such a serious disease, but has been known to do good in many cases. The baking soda is soothing.

4. Erysipelas, Easy Remedy for.—"Keep parts well bathed with witch-hazel." A good preparation should be bought. By applying this freely to the affected parts it will be found to have a very soothing effect.

5. Erysipelas, Copperas Liniment for.—"A few cents' worth of common copperas. Make a solution and keep applying it. This kills the poison as it comes on and relieves the pain. I knew of a very bad case to be cured by this treatment."

6. Erysipelas, Cranberry Poultice for.—"Take cranberries and stew them and make a poultice of them." This is a remedy that cannot be beaten for this disease. It gives relief in a very short time and saves the patient a great deal of suffering. If the whisky is used to wet the poultice it is much better, as it keeps the poultice moist longer. All that is necessary is simply to put on more whiskey and it will not be necessary to change the poultice so often.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Erysipelas.—It is best to separate the patient from the others in the family. Some people very easily take this disease. I know one who cannot be in the room where such a patient is for even five minutes without contracting it.

Local Treatment.—1. Wash the parts with a solution of boric acid, one-half teaspoonful to eight teaspoonfuls of tepid water, put this on the inflamed parts. Then apply a poultice of bruised cranberries. Wash the face each time with the solution before applying the cranberry poultice afresh.

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2. Paint thoroughly with tincture of iodine outside of the margin of the disease where the skin shows no sign of the trouble. This is very effective. If done freely it produces a slight inflammation. The stain made by it remains for some time and that is the objection to it on the face, but do not hesitate on that account if the other remedies do not work well or are not at hand.

3. The following is a splendid local application.—Cleanse thoroughly the inflamed part with pure castile soap and water, and then wash this off with one to one thousand corrosive sublimate solution. Dry the skin with a soft towel and apply a thick coating of equal parts of Ichthyol and vaselin, and over this place antiseptic gauze or sterilized absorbent cotton. Keep this in place with adhesive straps. If the diseased surface is small it may not be necessary to use the gauze, etc.

4. Tincture Chloride of Iron in dose of ten to twenty drops and more if necessary four times a day, well diluted with water. This is very hard on the teeth and should be taken through a glass tube.

Diet.—Milk, broths, etc., liquid diet or foods. (See Nursing Dept. under liquid diet.)

Nursing.—When you nurse any infectious patient, you must be not only careful of your patient, but of yourself. It is not necessary in order to do good nursing to endanger yourself; and a nurse who does not know how to care for herself, cannot successfully nurse the sick. In erysipelas I always watch the eruption closely. Sometimes it recedes, and the patient, of course, is worse. Then there are some people who believe in "pow- wowing." They have that done and then do not take care of themselves. I have attended such cases. One case was especially striking. The "pow-wow" person did his work and then the patient thought himself well and proceeded to enjoy himself and caught cold. The result was the "going in" of the eruption and a beautiful cough. I succeeded in my efforts and the next day he had the erysipelas going along nicely, but no cough. I write this so you will take proper care of yourself and shun conjurers and their "pow-wow."

TOXEMIA, SEPTICEMIA; PYEJMIA.—Toxemia refers to the group of symptoms and lesions caused by the presence in the blood of toxins (poison) usually resulting from bacterial growths.

Septicemia refers to the condition caused by the presence in the blood of bacteria (microbes) as well as toxin.

Pyemia refers to the same condition as septicemia with the development of fresh places of suppuration.

Sapremia is a septic intoxication, the result of the absorption of toxins.

[INFECTIOUS DISEASES 223]

SEPTICEMIA.—The presence of bacteria in the blood, introduced from a local lesion (wound, injury, etc.) or with no obvious local infection.

Symptom.—If there is a local infection, symptoms of this precede the septicemia. The invasion may be sudden or gradual, with chill or chilly feelings, followed by symptoms of active fever and later of an asthenic (absence of strength and feeling) fever, with dry tongue and dullness or delirium. Death may occur in one to seven days.

PYEMIA.—This means the presence in the blood of bacteria with resultant foci (places) of suppuration.

Symptoms.—They are local at first where the lesion is. The invasion of the general infection is marked by a severe chill, then high fever and sweating, repeated daily or at irregular intervals.

Fever is variable with sudden falls. In some cases the fever assumes very weakening type and the patient looks like a case of typhoid fever in the third week, and death soon occurs.

In other cases the chills, fever and sweating are repeated at irregular intervals. The patients are emaciated and the skin has a sallow color. Death usually occurs eventually from exhaustion in a few days or months.

Local Treatment.—This should be attended to from the beginning. If you injure your finger or any part and it soon looks red, and feels sore, open it up thoroughly with a clean instrument and cover it with a clean gauze or cotton. It must not be covered too tightly so that the discharge, if any, can leave the wound. Enough dressing must be put on to absorb that. Then keep the wound clean, and so it can "run" if necessary. If you neglect this or do it carelessly and admit dirt you will make it worse.

See treatment of wounds, etc.

General Treatment.—Keep the strength up in every way. The strength should be kept up by giving nourishing diet that will suit that special case and medicine that will produce a tonic effect, such as quinine and strychnine.

ASIATIC CHOLERA.—This is an acute infectious disease caused by a specific organism and characterized by profuse watery discharges from the bowels and great prostration.

Causes.—Some inherit a weakness, making them more susceptible than others to this disease. Other causes are intemperance, general debility, unhygienic surroundings, exciting causes. The spirillum (cholera asiaticus) found in the stools, watery discharges and intestines