Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 29

2. Take Peruvian bark, two ounces; wild cherry tree bark, 1 ounce; cinnamon, one drachm; powdered capsic.u.m, one teaspoonful; sulphur, one ounce; port wine, two quarts. Let it stand a day or two. Dose, a wine-gla.s.sful every two or three hours until the disease is broken, and then two or three times a day until all is taken.

SPRAINED ANKLE.--Wash the ankle frequently with cold salt and water, which is far better than warm vinegar or decoctions of herbs. Keep your foot as cold as possible to prevent inflammation, and sit with it elevated on a cushion. Live on very low diet, and take every day some cooling medicine. By obeying these directions only, a sprained ankle has been cured in a few days.

APOPLEXY.--Occurs only in the corpulent or obese, and the gross or high livers. To treat, raise the head to a nearly upright position; unloose all tight clothes, strings, etc., and apply cold water to the head and warm water and warm cloths to the feet. Have the apartment cool and well ventilated. Give nothing by the mouth until the breathing is relieved, and then only draughts of cold water.

PREPARATION FOR THE CURE OF BALDNESS.--Rum, one pint; alcohol, one ounce; distilled water, one ounce, tincture of cantharides, a half drachm; carbonate of potash, a half drachm; carbonate of ammonia, one drachm. Mix the liquids after having dissolved the salts, and filter.

After the skin of the head has been wetted with this preparation for several minutes, it should be washed with water.

BILIOUS COLIC.--Mix two tablespoonfuls of Indian meal in half a pint of cold water; drink it at two draughts.

BILIOUS COMPLAINTS.--Take the root and branch of dandelion, and steep it in soft water a sufficient length of time to extract all the essence; then strain the liquor and simmer until it becomes quite thick. Dose: From one to three gla.s.ses a day may be taken with good effect.

BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.--To one quart blackberry juice add one pound white sugar, one tablespoonful each cloves, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Boil together fifteen minutes, and add a wine-gla.s.s of whisky, brandy or rum. Bottle while hot, cork tight and seal. Used in diarrhea and dysentery. Dose, a wine-gla.s.sful for an adult, half that quant.i.ty for a child. It can be taken three or four times a day if the case is severe.

BLISTERS.--- On the feet, occasioned by walking, are cured by drawing a needleful of worsted thread through them; clip it off at both ends and leave it till the skin peals off.

RAISING BLOOD.--Make a tea of white oak bark, and drink freely during the day; or take half a pound of yellow dock root, boil in new milk, say one quart: drink one gill three times a day, and take one pill of white pine pitch every day.

HOW TO STOP BLOOD.--Take the fine dust of tea, or the sc.r.a.pings of the inside of tanned leather. Bind it upon the wound closely, and blood will soon cease to flow.

BOILS.--Make a poultice of ginger and flour, and lay it on the boil.

This will soon draw it to a head.

SWELLED BOWELS IN CHILDREN.--Bathe the stomach of the child with catnip steeped, mixed with fresh b.u.t.ter and sugar.

CHILBLAINS.--Dr. Fergus recommends sulphurous acid in this affection.

It should be applied with a camel's hair brush, or by means of a spray producer. One application of this effects a cure. The acid should be used pure. A good wash for hands or feet affected with chilblains is sulphurous acid, three parts; glycerine, one part, and water one part. The acid will be found particularly useful in the irritating, tormenting stage of chilblains.

CHILBLAINS AND CHAPPED HANDS.--When chilblains manifest themselves, the best remedy not only for preventing their ulcerating, but overcoming the tingling, itching pain, and stimulating the circulation of the part to healthy action, is the liniment of belladona, two drachms; the liniment of aconite, one drachm; carbolic acid, ten drops; collodion flexile, one ounce; painted with a camel's hair pencil over their surface. When the chilblains vesicate, ulcerate or slough, it is better to omit the aconite and apply the other components of the liniment without it. The collodion flexile forms a coating or protecting film, which excludes the air, while the sedative liniments allay the irritation, generally of no trivial nature. For chapped hands we advise the free use of glycerine and good oil, in the proportion of two parts of the former to four of the latter; after this has been well rubbed into the hands and allowed to remain for a little time, and the hands subsequently washed with Castile soap and water, we recommend the belladonna and collodion flexile to be painted on, and the protective film allowed to remain permanently. These complaints not unfrequently invade persons of languid circulation and relaxed habit, who should be put on a generous regimen, and treated with ferruginous tonics. Obstinate, cases are occasionally met with which no local application will remedy, unless some disordered state of the system is removed, or the general condition of the patient's health improved. Chapped lips are also benefited by the stimulating form of application we advocate, but the aconite must not be allowed to get on the lips, or a disagreeable tingling results.

CHILBLAIN BALM.--Boil together ten fluid ounces olive oil, two fluid ounces Venice turpentine, and one ounce yellow wax; strain, and while still warm add, constantly stirring, two and a half drachms balsam of Peru and ten grains camphor.

CURE FOR CHILBLAIN.--Make a strong lye by boiling wood ashes in water.

Put your feet in a small tub and cover them with the lye as hot as you can bear it. Gradually add more lye, hotter and hotter. Keep them in half an hour, bathing and rubbing them continually, and being very careful to keep the lye hot.

CHILBLAIN LOTION.--Dissolve one ounce muriate of ammonia in one-half pint cider vinegar, and apply frequently. One-half pint of alcohol may be added to this lotion with good effects.

CHILBLAIN OINTMENT.--Take mutton tallow and lard, of each three-fourths of a pound avoirdupois; melt, in an iron vessel, and add hydrated oxide of iron, two ounces, stirring continually with an iron spoon until the ma.s.s is of a uniform black color; when nearly cool add Venice turpentine, two ounces; Armenian bole, one ounce; oil of bergamot, one drachm; rub up the bole with a little olive oil before putting it in. Apply several times daily by putting it upon lint or linen. It heals the worst cases in a few days.

RUSSIAN REMEDY FOR CHILBLAINS.--Slices of the rind of fully ripe cuc.u.mbers, dried with the soft parts attached. Previous to use they are softened by soaking them in warm water, and are then bound on the sore parts with the inner side next them, and left on all night.

This treatment is said to be adopted for both broken and unbroken chilblains. HOW TO CURE ITCHING CHILBLAINS.--Take hydrochloric acid, one part, and water, eight parts; mix. Apply on going to bed. This must not be used if the skin is broken. Sal ammoniac, two ounces; rum, one pint; camphor, two drachms. The affected part is wetted night and morning, and when dry is touched with a little simple ointment of any kind--cold cream or pomatum.

Oil of turpentine, four ounces; camphor, six drachms; oil of cajeput, two drachms. Apply with friction.

HOW TO CURE BROKEN CHILBLAINS.--Mix together four fluid ounces collodion, one and a half fluid ounces Venice turpentine, and one fluid ounce castor oil.

HOW TO CURE CORNS.--Take equal parts of mercurial and galbanum ointments; mix them well together, spread on a piece of soft leather, and apply it to the corns morning and evening. In a few days benefit will be derived. Take two ounces of gum ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax, and six ounces of verdigris; melt them together, and spread the composition on soft leather; cut away as much of the corn as you can, then apply the plaster, and renew it every fortnight till the corn is away. Get four ounces of white diachylon plaster, four ounces of shoemaker's wax, and sixty drops of muriatic acid or spirits of salt.

Boil them for a few minutes in an earthen pipkin, and when cold roll the ma.s.s between the hands, and apply it on a piece of white leather.

Soak the feet well in warm water, then with a sharp instrument pare off as much of the corn as can be done without pain, and bind up the part with a piece of linen or muslin thoroughly saturated with sperm oil, or, which is better, the oil which floats upon the surface of the herring or mackerel. After three or four days the dressing may be removed by sc.r.a.ping, when the new skin will be found of a soft and healthy texture, and less liable to the formation of a new corn than before. Corns may be prevented by wearing easy shoes. Bathe the feet frequently in lukewarm water, with a little salt or potashes dissolved in it. The corn itself will be completely destroyed by rubbing it often with a little caustic solution of potash till the soft skin is formed. Sc.r.a.pe to a pulp sufficient Spanish garlic, and bind on the corn over night, after first soaking it well in warm water, and sc.r.a.pe off as much as possible of the hardened portion in the morning. Repeat the application as required.

HOW TO CURE SOFT CORNS.--Sc.r.a.pe a piece of common chalk, and put a pinch to the soft corn, and bind a piece of linen rag upon it.

HOW TO CURE TENDER CORNS.--A strong solution of tannic acid is said to be an excellent application to tender feet as well as a preventive of the offensive odor attendant upon their profuse perspiration. To those of our readers who live far away in the country, we would suggest a strong decoction of oak bark as a subst.i.tute.

CAUSTIC FOR CORNS.--Tincture of iodine, four drachms: iodide of iron, twelve grains; chloride of antimony, four drachms; mix, and apply with a camel's hair brush, after paring the corn. It is said to cure in three times.

HOW TO RELIEVE CORNS.--Bind them up at night with a cloth wet with tincture of arnica, to relieve the pain, and during the day occasionally moisten the stocking over the corn with arnica if the shoe is not large enough to allow the corn being bound up with a piece of linen rag.

REMEDY FOR CORNS.--1. The pain occasioned by corns may be greatly alleviated by the following preparation: Into a one-ounce vial put two drachms of muriatic acid and six drachms of rose-water. With this mixture wet the corns night and morning for three days. Soak the feet every evening in warm water without soap. Put one-third of the acid into the water, and with a little picking the corn will be dissolved.

2. Take a lemon, cut off a small piece, then nick it so as to let in the toe with the corn, tie this on at night so that it cannot move, and in the morning you will find that, with a blunt knife, you may remove a considerable portion of the corn. Make two or three applications, and great relief will be the result.

HOW TO CURE SOLVENT CORNS.--Expose salt of tartar (pearlash) in a wide-mouth vial in a damp place until it forms an oil-like liquid, and apply to the corn.

HOW TO CURE CHOLERA.--Take laudanum, tincture cayenne, compound tincture rhubarb, peppermint, and camphor, of each equal parts. Dose, ten to thirty drops. In plain terms, take equal parts tincture of opium, red pepper, rhubarb, peppermint and camphor, and mix them for use. In case of diarroea, take a dose of ten to twenty drops in three or four teaspoonfuls of water. No one who has this by him, and takes it in time, will ever have the cholera.

SIGNS OF DISEASE IN CHILDREN.--In the case of a baby not yet able to talk, it must cry when it is ill. The colic makes a baby cry loud, long, and pa.s.sionately, and shed tears--stopping for a moment and beginning again.

If the chest is affected, it gives one sharp cry, breaking off immediately, as if crying hurt it.

If the head is affected, it cries in sharp, piercing shrieks, with low moans and wails between. Or there may be quiet dozing, and startings between.

It is easy enough to perceive, where a child is attacked by disease, that there has some change taken place; for either its skin will be dry and hot, its appet.i.te gone; it is stupidly sleepy, or fretful or crying; it is thirsty, or pale and languid, or in some way betrays that something is wrong. When a child vomits, or has a diarrhoea, or is costive and feverish, it is owing to some derangement, and needs attention. But these various symptoms may continue for a day or two before the nature of the disease can be determined. A warm bath, warm drinks, etc., can do no harm, and may help to determine the case. On coming out of the bath, and being well rubbed with the hand, the skin will show symptoms of rash, if it is a skin disease which has commenced. By the appearance of the rash, the nature of the disease can be learned. Measles are in patches, dark red, and come out first about the face. If scarlet fever is impending, the skin will look a deep pink all over the body, though most so about the neck and face.

Chicken-pox shows fever, but not so much running at the nose, and appearances of cold, as in measles, nor is there as much of a cough.

Besides, the spots are smaller, and do not run much together, and are more diffused over the whole surface of the skin; and enlarge into blisters in a day or two.

HOW TO CURE CONSUMPTION.--Take one tablespoonful of tar, and the yolks of three hen's eggs, beat them well together. Dose, one tablespoonful morning, noon and night.

CROUP, REMEDY FOR IN ONE MINUTE.--This remedy is simply alum. Take a knife or grater, and shave or grate off in small particles about a teaspoonful of alum; mix it with about twice its quant.i.ty of sugar, to make it palatable, and administer as quickly as possible. Its effects will be truly magical, as almost instantaneous relief will be afforded.

CHOLERA REMEDY, HARTSHORNE'S.--Take of chloroform, tincture of opium, spirits of camphor, and spirits of aromatic ammonia, each one and one-half fluid drachms; creosote, three drops; oil of cinnamon, eight drops; brandy, two fluid drachms. Dilute a teaspoonful with a wine-gla.s.s of water, and give two teaspoonfuls every five minutes, followed by a lump of ice.

CURE FOR DANDRUFF.--Good mild soap is one of the safest remedies, and

is sufficient in ordinary cases; carbonate of potash or soda is too alkaline for the skin. Every application removes a portion of the cuticle, as you may observe by the smoothness of the skin of your hands after washing them with it. Borax is recommended; but this is also soda combined with a weak acid, boracic acid, and may by protracted use also injuriously act on the scalp. Soap is also soda or potash combined with the weak, fatty acids; and when the soap contains an excess of the alkalies or is sharp, it is as injurious as the carbonate of potash. All that injures the scalp injures the growth of the hair. One of the best applications from the vegetable kingdom is the mucilaginous decoction of the root of the burdock, called bardane in French (botanical name, _Lappa Minor_). In the mineral kingdom the best remedy is a solution of flowers of sulphur in water, which may be made by the addition of a very small portion of sulphide of pota.s.sium, say ten or twenty grains to the pint. This solution is shaken up with the sulphur, and the clear liquid remaining on the top is used. This recipe is founded on the fact that sulphur is a poison for inferior vegetable or animal growth, like dandruff, itch, etc., and is not at all a poison for the superior animal like man.

HOW TO CURE DIPHTHERIA.--A French physician expresses his preference for lemon juice, as a local application in diphtheria, to chlorate of potash, nitrate of silver, perchloride of lime water. He uses it by dipping a little plug of cottonwood, twisted around a wire, in the juice, and pressing it against the diseased surface four or five times daily.

HOW TO CURE BAD BREATH.--Bad or foul breath will be removed by taking a teaspoonful of the following mixture after each meal: One ounce liquor of pota.s.sa, one ounce chloride of soda, one and one-half ounces phosphate of soda, and three ounces of water.

2. Chlorate of potash, three drachms; rose-water, four ounces. Dose, a tablespoonful four or five times daily.

HOW TO CURE BUNIONS.--A bunion is a swelling on the ball of the great toe, and is the result of pressure and irritation by friction. The treatment for corns applies also to bunions; but in consequence of the greater extension of the disease, the cure is more tedious. When a bunion is forming it may be stopped by poulticing and carefully opening it with a lancet.

HOW TO CURE BURNS AND SCALDS.--Take half a pound of powdered alum, dissolve it in a quart of water; bathe the burn or scald with a linen rag, wetted with this mixture, then bind the wet rag on it with a strip of linen, and moisten the bandage with the alum water frequently, without removing it during two or three days.

TEA LEAVES FOR BURNS.--Dr. Searles, of Warsaw, Wis., reports the immediate relief from pain in severe burns and scalds by the application of a poultice of tea leaves.