In case you are afraid to take laudanum, though it is but
an idle fear, adopt the following recipe: — Before going to bed,
put the feet in hot water, and have a warm bed. As you step
into bed, or just after it, take either a Dover's powder in a lit-
tle preserve, or a teaspoonful of sweet spirits of nitre in a tea-
cupful of hot milk; cover up with extra blankets or rugs.
Either one or other of the remedies will produce violent per-
spiration, which will probably bring about the desired effect.
If all else fails, try a Turkish bath.
Another remedy — whose value is as yet unknown to the
medical profession — for colds, viz. aconite, either in tincture
or pilules, one every four hours, often produces an excellent
effect; and gives relief as soon as, or sooner than anything else.
Chapped Hands. — After washing the hand, and before dry-
ing them, pour over the backs of them some glycerine and
water (equal proportions), smear it over them, and then quickly
dip it into water and dry the hands gently, so as not entirely
to wipe off the glycerine.
Chest, Inflammatioil of. — Varieties. — This term would in-
clude pneumonia, or inflammation of the substance of the
lungs; bronchitis, or inflammation of the air tubes going to the
lungs;, and pleurisy, or inflammation of the thin membrane
which covers the lungs and lines the chest. It requires medi-
cal knowledge to distinguish these one from the other, but as
they have many symptoms in common they are here, for facil-
ity or domestic treatment, classed together. The following
principal distinctive features of each may, however, be of some
use:
Symptoms. — In pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs,
there is a dull aching, or more severe, pain at some parts
(usually the lower part) of the chest; difficulty of breathing,
with a frequent short cough with very little expectoration,
which will probably be of a rusty color or slightly streaked
with blood. There is also a difference in the two sides as to
the ease or discomfort of lying down. The skin dry or pun-
gently hot, and in feverish state.
In bronchitis the pain is more extended but less acute, and
the fever runs less high, the tightness of breath less; expecto-
ration is looser, and frothy.
In pleurisy there may be no cough at all, the fever less ac-
tive; but the pain is cutting and acute, and usually referable
to a spot or limited part, and increased by coughing, etc. The
308 MEDICINAL.
pulse will be accelerated in each, the tongue furred, the bowels
disturbed in their functions, the urine high colored and depos-
iting a red sediment.
Inflammation of the chest generally begins with the symp-
tioms of catarrh, or of a severe cold; when the inflammation,
however, affects the substance of the lung or its covering, the
previous catarrhal stage is often short or entirely absent. The
pain and ferverish symptoms appear at once. The tendency of
these forms of inflammation of the chest is to recover under
ordinary care; but pneumonia sometimes goes on to absces,
bronchitis may run on into a chronic form, and cause suffoca-
tion by the profuse quantity of phlegm secreted. Pleurisy may
terminate in the pouring out of a quantity of fluid into the
chest.
Page 218
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
In case you are afraid to take laudanum, though it is but an idle fear, adopt the following recipe: — Before going to bed, put the feet in hot water, and have a warm bed. As you step into bed, or just after it, take either a Dover's powder in a little preserve, or a teaspoonful of sweet spirits of nitre in a teacupful of hot milk; cover up with extra blankets or rugs. Either one or other of the remedies will produce violent perspiration, which will probably bring about the desired effect. If all else fails, try a Turkish bath.
Another remedy — whose value is as yet unknown to the medical profession — for colds, viz. aconite, either in tincture or pilules, one every four hours, often produces an excellent effect; and gives relief as soon as, or sooner than anything else.
Chapped Hands. — After washing the hand, and before drying them, pour over the backs of them some glycerine and water (equal proportions), smear it over them, and then quickly dip it into water and dry the hands gently, so as not entirely to wipe off the glycerine.
Chest, Inflammation of. — Varieties. — This term would include pneumonia, or inflammation of the substance of the lungs; bronchitis, or inflammation of the air tubes going to the lungs;, and pleurisy, or inflammation of the thin membrane which covers the lungs and lines the chest. It requires medical knowledge to distinguish these one from the other, but as they have many symptoms in common they are here, for facility or domestic treatment, classed together. The following principal distinctive features of each may, however, be of some use:
Symptoms. — In pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, there is a dull aching, or more severe, pain at some parts (usually the lower part) of the chest; difficulty of breathing, with a frequent short cough with very little expectoration, which will probably be of a rusty color or slightly streaked with blood. There is also a difference in the two sides as to the ease or discomfort of lying down. The skin dry or pungently hot, and in feverish state.
In bronchitis the pain is more extended but less acute, and the fever runs less high, the tightness of breath less; expectoration is looser, and frothy.
In pleurisy there may be no cough at all, the fever less active; but the pain is cutting and acute, and usually referable to a spot or limited part, and increased by coughing, etc. The
pulse will be accelerated in each, the tongue furred, the bowels disturbed in their functions, the urine high colored and depositing a red sediment.
Inflammation of the chest generally begins with the symptioms of catarrh, or of a severe cold; when the inflammation, however, affects the substance of the lung or its covering, the previous catarrhal stage is often short or entirely absent. The pain and ferverish symptoms appear at once. The tendency of these forms of inflammation of the chest is to recover under ordinary care; but pneumonia sometimes goes on to absces, bronchitis may run on into a chronic form, and cause suffocation by the profuse quantity of phlegm secreted. Pleurisy may terminate in the pouring out of a quantity of fluid into the chest.