If the symptoms be very acute, two or three leeches may be
applied on the bony prominence behind the ears, as pressure
can efficiently be made there to stop the bleeding as soon as
they come off.
Calomel should be given in repeated small doses, unless it
produces diarrhoea; it should be then changed to grey powder,
with a little powdered nitre. Thus: Calomel, 2 grains; nitre,
6 grains; white sugar, 6 grains. Mix, and divide into six pow-
ders. Give one every four or six hours. Or, take of grey
powder, 6 grains; nitre, 12 grains; white sugar, 6 grains. Mix,
and divide into six powders. Give one every six hours. The
diet should be of the lightest kind, consisting mainly of milk
and water. A hot bath should be given at least once a day;
and the body of the infant may with great advantage be
sponged over with warm vinegar and water, eq«al parts.
If, in about eight-and-forty hours after the adoption of the
above means, the symptoms do not abate, a blister-plaster
should be applied to the nap of the neck. This, in case of
infants, should not be allowed to remain on longer than two
hours. It should then be taken off, even if it has not
raised a blister. A muslin bag filled, with bread and water
poultice should be applied to the surface, where the plaster has
been; the skin will then shortly begin to blister. The poultice
should be repeated every four hours, or when it becomes cold.
In most cases the preceding means will have succeeded in
subduing the malady; if, however, as is very frequently the
case, there is a scrofulous constitution, the remedies will not
have so favorable an effect. The symptoms may continue for
many days in a milder degree, and the little patient will then
require the withdrawal of all mercurial medicines and the sub-
stitution of a fuller diet for the milk. Beef-tea may then be
given several times a day, and if the sickness and diarrhoea
should continue, small doses of brandy (from ten to twenty
or thirty drops, according to age) may be given every three or
four hours.
MEDICINAL. . 351
Mouth, Inflammation of. — Symptoms.— Pain in moving the
tongue, and sometimes in moving the cheeks, the insides of
which are swollen and red; the gums and the tongue also are
often much swollen. There appear numerous white patches,
which are in reality superficial ulcers, covered with a white
false membrane. The tongue is cracked, and scored with a
whitish-brown fur, the breath is very offensive, and there is
general feverish disturbance, with irregularity of the bowels,
and sometimes extreme prostration. This affection may almost
invariably be traced to the injuriou- influence of sewage air.
Page 254
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
If the symptoms be very acute, two or three leeches may be applied on the bony prominence behind the ears, as pressure can efficiently be made there to stop the bleeding as soon as they come off.
Calomel should be given in repeated small doses, unless it produces diarrhoea; it should be then changed to grey powder, with a little powdered nitre. Thus: Calomel, 2 grains; nitre, 6 grains; white sugar, 6 grains. Mix, and divide into six powders. Give one every four or six hours. Or, take of grey powder, 6 grains; nitre, 12 grains; white sugar, 6 grains. Mix, and divide into six powders. Give one every six hours. The diet should be of the lightest kind, consisting mainly of milk and water. A hot bath should be given at least once a day; and the body of the infant may with great advantage be sponged over with warm vinegar and water, equal parts.
If, in about eight-and-forty hours after the adoption of the above means, the symptoms do not abate, a blister-plaster should be applied to the nap of the neck. This, in case of infants, should not be allowed to remain on longer than two hours. It should then be taken off, even if it has not raised a blister. A muslin bag filled, with bread and water poultice should be applied to the surface, where the plaster has been; the skin will then shortly begin to blister. The poultice should be repeated every four hours, or when it becomes cold.
In most cases the preceding means will have succeeded in subduing the malady; if, however, as is very frequently the case, there is a scrofulous constitution, the remedies will not have so favorable an effect. The symptoms may continue for many days in a milder degree, and the little patient will then require the withdrawal of all mercurial medicines and the substitution of a fuller diet for the milk. Beef-tea may then be given several times a day, and if the sickness and diarrhoea should continue, small doses of brandy (from ten to twenty or thirty drops, according to age) may be given every three or four hours.
Mouth, Inflammation of. — Symptoms.— Pain in moving the tongue, and sometimes in moving the cheeks, the insides of which are swollen and red; the gums and the tongue also are often much swollen. There appear numerous white patches, which are in reality superficial ulcers, covered with a white false membrane. The tongue is cracked, and scored with a whitish-brown fur, the breath is very offensive, and there is general feverish disturbance, with irregularity of the bowels, and sometimes extreme prostration. This affection may almost invariably be traced to the injurious influence of sewage air.