Papers on Health Part 29

In a very severe case, mix in a teacupful of hot water as much saltpetre as the water will dissolve. Add to this a teaspoonful of acetic acid, and use this to soak the sore instead of simple weak acid.

Then, if healing does not come, it is probably because rest is not taken, and most likely also because there is deficient vitality in the whole system. Let the treatment with the lotion be given in the morning. Secure rest during the day, and in the evening, for an hour, thoroughly foment the feet and legs up over the knees. Once a week for two weeks give the SOAPY BLANKET (_see_) instead of this treatment, and in the morning rub all over the body with hot vinegar. This powerfully stimulates the vitality of the whole system. Even a very bad ulcer should give way under a careful course of united acid soaking, rest, and this stimulating treatment.

Unconsciousness.--There are two opposite causes of unconsciousness. One is congestion of the brain, the other sheer nerve exhaustion. Either will produce a prolonged suspension of consciousness very different from a mere pa.s.sing faint. In the case of congestion, the head will be hot and the feet cold. The cure is therefore at once seen to be to cool the head and foment the feet in a hot blanket up to the knees. This is the treatment usually to be given to young children. When aged people, or those much exhausted from any cause, become unconscious from lack of vitality, there will be rather a _general_ coldness, and no special heat in the head. We have seen such a case of "coma," which had lasted for forty-eight hours, come all right in ten minutes, by simply fomenting the back of the head and neck, and all down the spinal column. Press a thickly-folded piece of flannel wrung out of hot water carefully and gently over these parts, and often in a few minutes the mental power comes back. Care must be taken not to scald the patient.

_See_ Fomentation.

Underwear.--There is a common and very popular error, namely, that of putting too much clothing on our bodies, under the mistaken idea that additional weight means additional warmth. The fact that the main object of clothing is to preserve the natural heat of the body is lost sight of, and little attention is paid to the selection of proper garments for wearing next the skin. Every day the skin of an average healthy individual gives off so many pints of moisture, which must not be allowed to settle on the body if health is to be maintained. After long and exhaustive trials, we have come to the conclusion that the best material for wearing next the skin is knitted linen, and the best knitted linen of the kind, and in fact, the only pure linen mesh material which we have seen, is known as _Kneipp linen_, and can be obtained from all leading retailers and outfitters in this and other countries. The name of the nearest agent may be had by sending a card to the Kneipp Linen Warehouse, 2 Milk St., London, E.C. In winter light woollen underwear can be worn over the linen if desired, thus retaining the hygienic advantages of the linen, as well as the warmth of the wool. As the wool does not touch the skin, it will not require frequent washing, and so will not become felted up.

Linen is the symbol of cleanliness, the priests of old, as we read in Ezekiel, being commanded to wear it, and not wool or any garment causing sweat.

Our reason for specially naming Kneipp linen is that we know it is _pure linen_, whereas we know that what is sold as linen mesh is frequently half linen and half cotton.

Linen is the most absorbent material for underwear. It soaks up moisture very rapidly, and dries with equal rapidity. Hence linen is always preferred for towels and bandages. Those who use it for underwear will not require to change the clothes after exercise, as they would if wool were worn next the skin. The ordinary woven linen is clean but cold: Kneipp linen is so constructed as to be clean and warm.

This material retains air in its meshes, and a layer of dry air next the body is the best method of preserving an even temperature, and thus avoiding colds and chills, which are so prevalent in a climate such as ours. Wool is entirely unsuited for wearing next the skin. It does not absorb the perspiration rapidly nor radiate it freely, and after several washings it becomes felted, and in that condition is absolutely injurious to health. It is the material par excellence for outer clothing, but all inner garments coming in contact with the body should be composed of pure linen. (_See_ Skin, Care of).

Uric Acid.--This acid is found in persons of a gouty tendency, such tendencies being a great deal more common than is imagined.

It is really a waste product formed by the activity of the body cells, and should properly be mainly transformed into urea and so excreted. If it is not so transformed it acc.u.mulates in the blood and deposits in stony formations in different parts of the body, as in the joints, kidneys and bladder, causing very serious disease. Pure air and plenty of exercise will a.s.sist its transformation.

It is also taken into the body in various foods, particularly meat and tea, which are very rich in it or kindred chemical substances, therefore, anyone having such a tendency should avoid these. The consumption of sugar should also be limited. Avoid alcohol and use plenty of green vegetables and fruits.

The tendency to a "uric acid" const.i.tution is hereditary, and is prevalent among families who live high. Such should be continually on the watch lest their diet should precipitate an attack. Water should be freely drunk, and plenty of bathing with subsequent rubbing of the muscles or ma.s.sage is advisable.

Drugs are to be avoided as they often result in painful heart affection, and besides do not strike at the real root of the disease.

Soda or lithia water may be taken either with or without milk. Brine baths may be taken when practicable.

Urinary Troubles.--A healthy man usually evacuates about 30-40 ozs. of urine daily, the excretion being greater in the winter than in the summer, owing to the checked perspiration. The urine should be of a pale straw colour and transparent. Where any irregularity in the urine, either in quant.i.ty or quality, is suspected, it is wise to use soft boiled or distilled water only, for drinking, and to take frequent sips of it throughout the day, and especially early in the morning. Either pure hot water, hot water and lemon juice, or whey, will help the action of the kidneys when this is sluggish.

Where the bladder is irritated and painfully sensitive, a large hot BRAN POULTICE (_see_) should be applied to the lower back. While the patient lies on this, cold towels (_see_ Towels, Cold Wet) should be changed over the bladder in front. While giving such treatment once or twice a day, _rest_ must be taken, if a cure is to be obtained. For a patient to say that rest cannot be had, is to say that cure is impossible.

Where there is a tendency to stoppage of the urine, a warm sitz-bath should be taken. The patient first sits in three inches deep of comfortably hot water. More water at the same temperature is poured gradually in at intervals, until it rises well up over the abdomen.

This will usually relieve even a bad case.

Treat with bran poultice and cold towels, as above recommended, after the warm bath has given relief. It should be remembered that the _cold_ is the healing power, bracing the bladder and all its muscles and vessels. Hence more than a slight cooling is needed. But the cooling is only possible when good heat is kept up on the base of the back. This treatment also cures the swelling of the bladder which often accompanies restriction of urine.

Where a positive growth interferes with the urinary discharge, this may often be actually _melted away_ by soaking with weak ACETIC ACID (_see_), when it is at all possible to reach it. The power of cure possessed by acetic acid is incredible, except to those who have seen it exercised, and its persistent use would, we are use, save many lives, if people would only try it.

We would also advise the four-ply flannel bandage, with two plies damp and two dry. This round the body has a wonderfully soothing effect. So has a nicely applied lathering with SOAP (_see_). As in most other troubles, special care must be taken to keep the feet warm.

Vaccination Trouble.--When a child is suffering after vaccination, we should have him gently rubbed all over--thrice at least with M'Clinton's soap (_see_ Lather). No one who has not seen this well done can believe how blessed are its effects on an irritated skin. It soothes incredibly. When thoroughly covered and covered again with well-made lather of this soap, the child will sleep beautifully. We should soap head and all, and let the little man sleep all night in the soap. He may be sponged in the morning with weak vinegar and water to clean off the remains of the soap, if there are any. Now, there will occur a most important question: Is the child cold or feverish? If cold, then mix some good olive oil in your rubbing with the lather. If hot, use no oil. If cold, rub all over with warm oil before applying the lather. It will make no difference, or next to none, if the disease has broken out as a visible skin disease, only it will be necessary to use the vinegar on the unbroken parts of the skin and not to distress the child by painful smarting. The soap will not need to be so restricted. That cures the most tender sores, and soothes in a delightful way.

Vegetables, Green, and Fruit.--We would strongly recommend our readers to continually have these valuable foods on their tables. It is possible to obtain them in some form or other during the entire year.

They contain very valuable salts, which are of the greatest use in preventing disease. These salts are absolutely necessary for life, and though found in other foods such as meat, are particularly abundant in these vegetables. If cooked they must be carefully prepared, as the salts are very soluble in water (_see_ Cooking). Vegetable salads and fruit salads are to be recommended. Those of gouty or corpulent tendencies will find these of especial use. By keeping the blood alkaline they are a preventive of many diseases. Spinach, cabbage, lettuce, and all the fruits offer a variety from which at each season one may choose.

It is to be observed that common salt and salt such as bi-carbonate of soda, do not adequately replace those food salts. Indeed, over-consumption of common salt is harmful, besides leading to unnatural thirst.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are always to be preferred to tinned ones.

Veins, Swollen.--The swelling of veins in the leg is a very common trouble, especially in middle and later life. At first this may cause no pain, one vein appearing as a little blue lump. Then as the trouble increases, knots of veins seem to rise, especially below and behind the knee. Great pain follows, and sometimes the veins burst, causing bad sores, not easy to heal.

All this generally springs from _overstrain_ upon the limbs. Long continued standing, in circ.u.mstances otherwise unfavourable to health, is the usual cause.

This shows the primary necessity of _rest_. Let the patient lie down as much as possible, or at least sit with the sore limb or limbs supported on a chair so as to be nearly level. If this can be done thoroughly, all work being given up for a month or so, a cure is not very difficult. But where this rest cannot be had, an elastic band, such as is used by bootmakers to make strong boot gussets, about six inches broad and one foot long, should be procured. Fasten this round _above_ the knee, well up the thigh. This will greatly help to relieve the blood pressure on the lower leg, and is better than elastic stockings.

Before these bands are slipped on, the leg should be well rubbed or stroked _upwards_, as described at the end of Circulation. This rubbing empties the swollen veins, and gives great relief.

We have seen a man with both legs full of swollen veins ready for bursting, and most painful, get on two such bandages, and go on digging and working with perfect ease, while the veins sensibly contracted with no other application. But it is not necessary nor wise to confine medical measures to the use of such bandages. Rest is in some cases absolutely necessary.

Even where partial rest can be had, it is important to wear these bands and rub as described. But if possible, the patient should rest in bed for one week. To restore power to the relaxed vessels, a large bran poultice should be applied across the haunches behind, rubbing olive oil before and after. Apply this for fifty minutes each night during the week in bed. Wear a broad band of new flannel over the parts after the poultice. In the morning give the same treatment. If in a week the veins are not better, continue the treatment for another week. The elastic band is, of course, not worn in bed, but may be put on on rising as a security against relapse.

We have seen persons over sixty years of age completely cured in this way, when the necessary rest could be had.

If the _skin_ give signs, by dryness and hardness, that it is out of order, instead of treatment with the bran poultice, the SOAPY BLANKET (_see_) may be applied on the first night. The patient may on other nights be lathered with soap (_see_ Lather; Soap), and the soapy cloth worn on the back for a night or two, sponging all over with hot vinegar in the morning.

Where the veins by bursting have caused sores, treat with weak vinegar as directed for Ulcers, and after each acid soaking, bandage the whole limb (putting lint on the sores and dressing them properly) with an ordinary surgical bandage, just so tightly as to give relief, and not tight enough to cause any pain. Over-pressure injures. This treatment, with the necessary _rest_, will in most cases effect a cure in a few weeks.

Vomiting.--In many cases of severe illness, the stomach rejects all food, and the patient comes near to dying of simple starvation. On the slightest nourishment being taken, retching and vomiting ensue, the stomach being irritated beyond all possibility of its doing its work.

This occurs in cancer and ulcers in the stomach, as well as in various disorders and stomach inflammations.

"Rum and milk," "claret," and all alcoholic drinks are most injurious in such cases, and should _never_ be given. To soothe the irritation, the stomach should be soaped in the same manner as recommended in Head, Soaping the (_see also_ Lather). We have seen, even in very bad cases of cancer, such an application cause all retching to cease almost at once. When this has been carefully and gently done, give exceedingly small quant.i.ties at first, of infants' food, or milk and boiling water.

To give any "rich" things is a fatal mistake. Oatmeal jelly may be given also, but beginning with a teaspoonful at a time (_see_ a.s.similation; Digestion; Nourishment). By gradually working up the amount, a patient's life may be saved on this simple oatmeal jelly which would be lost if richer things were given. Often the stomach rejects food simply because it is surfeited. It may be that the liver is out of order, having had too much to do. Abstinence from food for a day or two, and then reducing the meals to two, taken, say, between 10 and 11, and 5 and 6 o'clock, will greatly help. Masticate the food till it is reduced to a liquid, in this state the quant.i.ty required will be wonderfully reduced and the work of the stomach lessened.

Water, Hot.--The frequent prescription in these papers of hot water, to be taken often in small quant.i.ties, makes it of importance that some explanation of its action should be given.

We see, frequently, such a thing as this: a person is confined to bed, sick and ill; there is no desire for food, but rather a loathing at the very idea of eating; distressing symptoms of various sorts are showing that the work of digestion and a.s.similation is going on badly, if really going on at all. The patient is started on a course of hot water in half-teacupfuls every ten minutes. When this has gone on for perhaps six or seven hours, he begins to be very hungry, and takes food with relish, probably for the first time for months past. In the meantime a greatly increased quant.i.ty of water has pa.s.sed from the body one way and another, but has all pa.s.sed loaded with waste material. The breath is loaded with carbonic acid and other impurities; the perspiration is loaded with all that makes it differ from pure water; the urine, especially, is loaded with waste separated from the blood and tissues of the body. The s.p.a.ce, so to speak, left vacant by all this washing away of waste matter makes its emptiness felt by a call upon the stomach to furnish fresh material. Some will say that the hot water merely pa.s.ses off by the kidneys without entering the circulation at all. This is impossible, and facts, patent to everyone, demonstrate that they are in error. The substances with which the water becomes impregnated show that it has been mingled with the circulation, and the wholesome effects produced prove that it has made itself useful.

"Hard" water, as it is called, will not do so well as "soft" water.

Distilled water is best of all. So much superior is it, indeed, that its use cannot be too strongly insisted on. It can be had from the druggist at twopence per quart.

Where nourishment is given with too little water, the food will often fail almost entirely to enter the circulation. But a little warm water, somewhat above blood heat, but not too hot, will make all right. This is especially seen in nourishing infants (_see_ Infants' Food). Food, then, will not act as water does, nor will water act as food. Even a little sugar mixed with the hot water completely alters its effect on the body. As it has already dissolved the sugar, it cannot dissolve what is needed to be removed from the body. Sugar and water is not a _bad_ mixture, but it will by no means do instead of pure water in the cases we contemplate. On the other hand, a mixture of alcohol with the water is ruinous, and that just in proportion to the quant.i.ty of alcohol, small or great. Beer, for example, can never do what is required of water, nor can wine, or any other alcoholic drink. Tea added to the water also alters its quality. The water _alone_, and as nearly perfect in purity as it can be got, is the only thing which will do the necessary work.

Sometimes one finds a great prejudice against hot water. You see one who is miserable through derangement of the stomach and digestive organs, and you mention "hot water." The very phrase is sufficient to put an expression of strong prejudice on the face. Yet that very hot water is perhaps the only thing that will cure the patient. If you wait a little, there will be an opening to explain that hot water is very different to tepid water. Under blood heat, and yet heated, water tends to produce vomiting; above blood heat, nothing will so well set the stomach right. This is true, however, only when the water is taken in very small quant.i.ties. You must see that the water is not smoked in the heating or otherwise spoiled. And also that it be not too hot. If it scalds the lips it is too hot. When it is comfortably warm, but not tepid, it does its work most effectively.

Water for Drinking.--Every care should be taken to have drinking water absolutely pure. Diarrhoea and many infectious diseases may be conveyed by impure water. In gouty cases as much water should be taken as possible (provided the heart is sufficiently strong) in order to wash away the waste matter. The same applies to fevers. If there is a suspicion of water being contaminated mere filtration should never be relied on, the water should be boiled.

After many of the treatments given by us in this book, considerable thirst will be experienced. Cold water in such cases may always be given. In fact, in any internal congested condition cold water will stimulate the nerves of these organs, and make them act on the blood vessels. In all cases where drugs, especially mineral drugs have been recklessly indulged in, cold water should be taken in abundance. Care must be taken, however, not to unduly stimulate the circulation or nervous system, and any signs of this, such as headache or want of sleep indicate the curtailment of the amount drunk.

Water in the Head.--In cases where this trouble is suspected, very often there is nothing wrong but a more or less congested state of the brain, owing to some severe chill or some disease elsewhere in the body. There may be violent heat in the head, and even the "drowsiness"

which is so serious a symptom, without any real "water in the head" at all. Leeching and blistering in such a case are grave mistakes. Cold towels (_see_ Towels, Cold Wet), or a gentle pouring of cool water on the head, will often be sufficient to remove all trouble. We have seen a bad case of brain congestion cured and consciousness return almost immediately after the pouring had begun. The feet also may be fomented (_see_ Fomentation). The cold towels and pouring may be used alternately on the head, which will give a more powerful effect. Let the water poured be almost lukewarm, a little under blood heat. There is no need to cut the hair, or use any acid or drug in the water. The _cooling_ is all that is needed. Incipient water in the head may in a very large number of cases be checked and cured by the same treatment.