The century cook book

Rooms in private houses that are occupied by phthisical patients should from time to time be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and this should always be done after they are vacated, before they are again occupied by other individuals. The eating utensils of a person suspected of having consumption should be thoroughly washed as soon after eating as possible, using boiling water for the purpose. The unwashed clothing of consumptive patients should not be mingled with similar clothing of other persons. The bowel discharges of a consumptive patient with diarrhoea should be caught in a vessel containing corrosive sublimate one part, water i,ooo parts. Mothers suspected of having consumption -should not nurse [illustration: The Family Doctor 309] their offspring. Household pets (animals or birds) are quite susceptible to tuberculosis; therefore they should not be exposed to persons afflicted with consumption. Also, all household pets suspected of having consumption should not be kept, but destroyed at once, otherwise they may give it to human beings. It is then, very important that the people should have a full knowledge of the fact that every consumptive person may be a source of actual danger to his associates, if the discharges from the lung are not immediately destroyed or rendered harmless, and also that the rooms that are occupied by phthisical persons should be thoroughly disinfected. Although no specific has as yet been discovered which will cure consumption, yet many cases are on record which have recovered, or at least, the disease has been arrested. Cod liver oil, whiskey, quinine and iron should never be omitted. They always do good. When the expectoration is copious and fluid, and there are night sweats and general exhaustion, the following prescription should be taken: Take of beechwood creosote one drachm, syrup of hypophosphites compound, three ounces; mix, and take a teaspoonful three times a day after meals. This prescription, even when taken early, has repeatedly arrested the disease. Expectorants and cough mixtures require discretion in their use; however, should the cough be troublesome, take the following: Syrup of wild cherry, and syrup of lactucarium, each two fluid ounces; mix ; take a dessertspoonful or two at night, or one or two teaspoonfuls in the daytime. Should there occur any hemorrhage from the lungs, the patient ought to be kept in bed, with the shoulders somewhat raised, and only iced milk and beef essence, or beef tea should be given for food. The popular remedy of holding salt in the mouth may be of some temporary use. Slowly melting and swallowing ice [illustration: 310 The Family Doctor] will probably do more good. Gallic acid in ten grain doses every two or three hours is a very effective remedy. Change of climate is often proposed for the benefit of the consumptive. In selecting this, equability and dryness are more important than warmth. That climate which allows the patient the greatest number of days out of doors will be the best. Minnesota, and other places near Lake Superior, agree extremely well with some, in the early, but not so well in the later stages of the disease. Of southern localities, Florida (best of all, its central pine lands) presents an especially equable, almost maritime, climate. Santa Barbara and San Diego in Southern California are also much recommended for the colder half of the year.