Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 32

MUSTARD PLASTERS.--It is stated that in making a mustard plaster, no water whatever should be used, but the mustard mixed with the white of an egg; the result will be a plaster that will "draw" perfectly, but will not produce a blister even upon the skin of an infant, no matter how long it is allowed to remain upon the part.

BREAD AND MILK POULTICE.--Take stale bread in crumbs, pour boiling sweet milk, or milk and water over it, and simmer till soft, stirring it well; then take it from the fire, and gradually stir in a little glycerine or sweet oil, so as to render the poultice pliable when applied.

LINSEED POULTICE.--Take of linseed, powdered, four ounces; hot water sufficient, mix and stir well with a spoon, until of suitable consistence. A little oil should be added, and some smeared over the surface as well, to prevent its getting hard. A very excellent poultice, suitable for many purposes.

SPICE POULTICE.--Powdered cinnamon, cloves and Cayenne pepper, of each two ounces; rye meal, or flour, spirits and honey, of each sufficient to make of suitable consistence.

QUINSY.--This is an inflammation of the tonsils, or common inflammatory sore throat; commences with a slight feverish attack, with considerable pain and swelling of the tonsils, causing some difficulty in swallowing; as the attack advances these symptoms become more intense, there is headache, thirst, a painful sense of tension, and acute darting pains in the ears. The attack is generally brought on by exposure to cold, and lasts from five to seven days, when it subsides naturally, or an abscess may form in tonsils and burst, or the tonsil may remain enlarged, the inflammation subsiding.

TREATMENT.--The patient should remain in a warm room, the diet chiefly milk and good broths, some cooling laxative and diaph.o.r.etic medicine may be given; but the greatest relief will be found in the frequent

inhalation of the steam of hot water through an inhaler, or in the old-fas.h.i.+oned way, through the spout of a teapot.

OTHER REMEDIES FOR RHEUMATISM.--1. Bathe the parts affected with water in which potatoes have been boiled, as hot as can be borne, just before going to bed; by morning it will be much relieved, if not removed. One application of this simple remedy has cured the most obstinate of rheumatic pains. 2. Half an ounce of pulverized salt petre put in half a pint of sweet oil; bathe the parts affected, and a sound cure will be speedily effected. 3. Rheumatism has frequently been cured by a persistent use of lemon juice, either undiluted or in the form of lemonade. Suck half a lemon every morning before breakfast, and occasionally during the day, and partake of lemonade when thirsty in preference to any other drink. If severely afflicted a physician should be consulted, but, in all cases, lemon juice will hasten the cure. 4. By the valerian bath, made simply by taking one pound of valerian root, boiling it gently for about a quarter of an hour in one gallon of water, straining and adding the strained liquid to about twenty gallons of water in an ordinary bath. The temperature should be about ninety-eight degrees, and the time of immersion from twenty minutes to half an hour. Pains must be taken to dry the patient perfectly upon getting out of the bath. If the inflammation remain refractory in any of the joints, linseed meal poultices should be made with a strong decoction of valerian root and applied.

HOW TO CURE RING-WORM.--To one part sulphuric acid, add sixteen to twenty parts water. Use a brush and feather, and apply it to the parts night and morning. A few dressings will generally cure. If the solution is too strong and causes pain, dilute it with water, and if the irritation is excessive, rub on a little oil or other softening application, but always avoid the use of soap.

Or, wash the head with soft soap every morning, and apply the following lotion every night: One-half drachm of sub-carbonate of soda dissolved in one gill of vinegar.

HEALING SALVE.--Sweet oil, three quarts; resin, three ounces; beeswax, three ounces. Melt together; then add powdered red lead, two pounds; heat all these together and when nearly cold add a piece of camphor as large as a nutmeg. Good for burns, etc.

SALT RHEUM.--1. Make a strong tea of elm root bark; drink the tea freely, and wash the affected part in the same. 2. Take one ounce of blue flag root, steep it in half a pint of gin; take a teaspoonful three times a day, morning, noon and night, and wash with the same. 3.

Take one ounce of oil of tar, one drachm of oil of checker berry; mix.

Take from five to twenty drops morning and night as the stomach will bear.

BLEEDING OF THE STOMACH.--Take a teaspoonful of camomile tea every ten minutes until the bleeding stops.

SICKNESS OF STOMACH.--Drink three or four times a day of the steep made from the bark of white poplar roots.

SUNBURN AND TAN.--1. Take two drachms of borax, one drachm of Roman alum, one drachm of camphor, half an ounce of sugar candy, and a pound of ox-gall. Mix, and stir well for ten minutes or so, and repeat this stirring three or four times a day for a fortnight, till it appears clear and transparent. Strain through blotting paper, and bottle up for use. 2. Milk of almonds made thus: Take of blanched bitter almonds half an ounce, soft water half a pint; make an emulsion by beating the almonds and water together, strain through a muslin cloth, and it is made. 3. A preparation composed of equal parts of olive oil and lime water is also an excellent remedy for sunburn.

TO PRODUCE SWEAT.--Take of nitre, one-half drachm; snake's head (herb), saffron, camphor, snake-root, seneca, bark of sa.s.safras root, each one ounce; ipecac, and opium, each one half ounce; put the above in three quarts of Holland gin, and take a tablespoonful in catnip tea every few minutes, till a sweat is produced.

TEETHING.--Young children whilst cutting their first set of teeth often suffer severe const.i.tutional disturbance. At first there is restlessness and peevishness, with slight fever, but not infrequently these are followed by convulsive fits, as they are commonly called, which depends on the brain becoming irritated; and sometimes under this condition the child is either cut off suddenly, or the foundation of serious mischief to the brain is laid. The remedy, or rather the safeguard, against these frightful consequences is trifling, safe, and almost certain, and consists merely in lancing the gum covering the tooth which is making its making its way through. When teething is about it may be known by the spittle constantly driveling from the mouth and wetting the frock. The child has its fingers in its month, and bites hard any substance it can get hold of. If the gums be carefully looked at, the part where the tooth is pressing up is swollen and redder than usual; and if the finger be pressed on it the child shrinks and cries, showing that the gum is tender. When these symptoms occur, the gum should be lanced, and sometimes the tooth comes through the next day, if near the surface; but if not so far advanced the cut heals and a scar forms, which is thought by some objectionable, as rendering the pa.s.sage of the tooth more difficult.

This, however, is untrue, for the scar will give way much more easily than the uncut gum. If the tooth does not come through after two or three days, the lancing may be repeated; and this is more especially needed if the child be very fractious, and seems in much pain. Lancing the gums is further advantageous, because it empties the inflamed part of its blood, and so relieves the pain and inflammation. The relief children experience in the course of two or three hours from the operation is often very remarkable, as they almost immediately become lively and cheerful.

WASH FOR TEETH AND GUMS.--The teeth should be washed night and morning, a moderately small and soft brush being used; after the morning ablution, pour on a second tooth-brush, slightly dampened, a little of the following lotion: Carbolic acid, 20 drops; spirits of wine, 2 drachms; distilled water, 6 ounces. After using this lotion a short time the gums become firmer and less tender, and impurity of the breath (which is most commonly caused by bad teeth), will be removed.

It is a great mistake to use hard tooth-brushes, or to brush the teeth until the gums bleed.

TETTER.--After a slight feverish attack, lasting two or three days, cl.u.s.ters of small, transparent pimples, filled sometimes with a colorless, sometimes with a brownish lymph, appear on the cheeks or forehead, or on the extremities, and at times on the body. The pimples are about the size of a pea, and break after a few days, when a brown or yellow crust is formed over them, which falls off about the tenth day, leaving the skin red and irritable. The eruption is attended with heat; itching, tingling, fever, and restlessness, especially at night.

Ringworm is a curious form of tetter, in which the inflamed patches a.s.sume the form of a ring.

TREATMENT--Should consist of light diet, and gentle laxatives. If the patient be advanced in life, and feeble, a tonic will be desirable.

For a wash, white vitriol, 1 drachm; rose-water, 3 ounces, mixed; or an ointment made of alder-flower ointment, 1 ounce; oxide of zinc, 1 drachm.

TO REMOVE TAN.--Tan may be removed from the face by mixing magnesia in soft water to the consistency of paste, which should then be spread on the face and allowed to remain a minute or two. Then wash off with Castile soap suds, and rinse with soft water.

CARE OF THE TEETH.--The mouth has a temperature of 98 degrees, warmer than is ever experienced in the shade in the lat.i.tude of New England.

It is well known that if beef, for example, be exposed in the shade during the warmest of our summer days, it will very soon decompose. If we eat beef for dinner, the particles invariably find their way into the s.p.a.ces between the teeth. Now, if these particles of beef are not removed, they will frequently remain till they are softened by decomposition. In most mouths this process of decomposition is in constant progress. Ought we to be surprised that the gums and teeth against which these decomposing or putrefying ma.s.ses lie should become subjects of disease?

How shall our teeth be preserved? The answer is very simple--keep them very clean. How shall they be kept clean? Answer--By a toothpick, rinsing with water, and the daily use of a brush.

The toothpick should be a quill, not because the metalic picks injure the enamel, but because the quill pick is so flexible it fits into all the irregularities between the teeth. Always after using the toothpick the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed. If warm water be not at hand, cold may be used, although warm is much better. Closing the lips, with a motion familiar to all, everything may be thoroughly rinsed from the mouth.

Every morning (on rising), and every evening (on going to bed), the tooth-brush should be used, and the teeth, both outside and inside, thoroughly brushed.

Much has been said _pro_ and _con_., upon the use of soap with the tooth-brush. My own experience and the experience of members of my family is highly favorable to the regular morning and evening use of soap. Castile or other good soap will answer this purpose. (Whatever is good for the hands and face is good for the teeth.) The slightly unpleasant taste which soap has when we begin to use it will soon be unnoticed.

TOOTH POWDERS.--Many persons, while laudably attentive to the preservation of their teeth, do them harm by too much officiousness.

They daily apply to them some dentifrice powder, which they rub so hard as not only to injure the enamel by excessive friction, but to hurt the gums even more than by the abuse of the toothpick. The quality of some of the dentifrice powders advertised in newspapers is extremely suspicious, and there is reason to think that they are not altogether free from a corrosive ingredient. One of the safest and best compositions for the purpose is a mixture of two parts of prepared chalk, one of Peruvian bark, and one of hard soap, all finely powdered, which is calculated not only to clean the teeth without hurting them, but to preserve the firmness of the gums.

Besides the advantage of sound teeth for their use in mastication, a proper attention to their treatment conduces not a little to the sweetness of the breath. This is, indeed, often affected by other causes existing in the lungs, the stomach, and sometimes even in the bowels, but a rotten state of the teeth, both from the putrid smell emitted by carious bones and the impurities lodged in their cavities, never fails of aggravating an unpleasant breath wherever there is a tendency of that kind.

REMEDIES FOR TOOTHACHE.--1. One drachm of alum reduced to an impalpable powder, three drachms of nitrous spirits of ether--mix, and apply them to the tooth on cotton. 2. Mix a little salt and alum, equal portions, grind it fine, wet a little lock of cotton, fill it with the powder and put it in your tooth. One or two applications seldom fail to cure. 3. To one drachm of collodion add two drachms of Calvert's carbolic acid. A gelatinous ma.s.s is precipitated, a small portion of which, inserted in the cavity of an aching tooth, invariably gives immediate relief. 4. Saturate a small bit of clean cotton wool with a strong solution of ammonia, and apply it immediately to the affected tooth. The pleasing contrast immediately produced in some cases causes fits of laughter, although a moment previous extreme suffering and anguish prevailed. 5. Sometimes a sound tooth aches from sympathy of the nerves of the face with other nerves.

But when toothache proceeds from a decayed tooth either have it taken out, or put hot fomentations upon the face, and hot drinks into the mouth, such as tincture of cayenne.

TO CURE WARTS.--Warts are formed by the small arteries, veins, and nerves united together, taking on a disposition to grow by extending themselves upward, carrying the scarf-skin along with them, which, thickening, forms a wart. Corns are a similar growth, brought about by the friction of tight boots and shoes. 1. Take a piece of diachylon plaster, cut a hole in the centre the size of the wart, and stick it on, the wart protruding through. Then touch it daily with aquafortis, or nitrate of silver. They may be removed by tying a string tightly around them. 2. Take a blacksmith's punch, heat it red hot and burn the warts with the end of it. When the burn gets well the warts will be gone forever. 3. Sc.r.a.pe down enough dry cobwebs to make a ball large enough to, or a little more than, cover the wart and not touch the flesh around the same; lay it on top of the wart, ignite it and let it be until it is all burnt up. The wart will turn white, and in a few days come out. 4. Pa.s.s a pin through the wart; apply one end of the pin to the flame of a lamp; hold it there until the wart fries under the action of the heat. A wart so treated will leave. 5.

Dissolve as much common was.h.i.+ng soda as the water will take up; wash the warts with this for a minute or two, and let them dry without wiping. Keep the water in a bottle and repeat the was.h.i.+ng often, and it will take away the largest warts. 6. They may be cured surely by paring them down until the blood comes slightly and then rubbing them with lunar caustic. It is needless to say this hurts a little, but it is a sure cure. The hydrochlorate of lime applied in the same way will cure after several applications and some patience; so will strong good vinegar, and so it is said will milk weed. The cures founded upon superst.i.tious practices, such as muttering some phrases over the excrescence, stealing a piece of beef, rubbing the wart therewith and then burying it under the leaves to await its decay, etc., etc., are all the remnants of a past state of ignorance and are of no use whatever. Warts are generally only temporary and disappear as their possessors grow up.

HOW TO CURE WHITE SWELLING.--Draw a blister on the inside of the leg below the knee; keep it running with ointment made of hen manure, by simmering it in hog's lard with onions; rub the knee with the following kind of ointment: Bits of peppermint, oil of sa.s.safras, checkerberry, juniper, one drachm each; simmer in one-half pint neatsfoot oil, and rub on the knee three times a day.

HOW TO CURE WOUNDS.--Catnip steeped, mixed with fresh b.u.t.ter and sugar.

HOW TO CURE WHOOPING-COUGH.--Take a quart of spring water, put in it a large handful of chin-cups that grow upon moss, a large handful of unset hyssop; boil it to a pint, strain it off, and sweeten it with sugar-candy. Let the child, as often as it coughs, take two spoonfuls at a time.

HOW TO CURE WORMS IN CHILDREN.--1. Take one ounce of powdered snake-head (herb), and one drachm each of aloes and p.r.i.c.kly ash bark; powder these, and to one-half teaspoonful of this powder add a teaspoonful of boiling water and a teaspoonful of mola.s.ses. Take this as a dose, night or morning, more or less, as the symptoms may require. 2. Take tobacco leaves, pound them up with honey, and lay them on the belly of the child or grown person, at the same time administering a dose of some good physic. 3. Take garden parsley, make it into a tea and let the patient drink freely of it. 4. Take the scales that will fall around the blacksmith's anvil, powder them fine, and put them in sweetened rum. Shake when you take them, and give a teaspoonful three times a day.

SCALDING OF THE URINE.--Equal parts of the oil of red cedar, and the oil of spearmint.

URINARY OBSTRUCTIONS.--Steep pumpkin seeds in gin, and drink about three gla.s.ses a day; or, administer half a drachm uva ursi every morning, and a dose of spearmint.

FREE Pa.s.sAGE OF URINE.--The leaves of the currant bush made into a tea, and taken as a common drink.

VENEREAL COMPLAINTS.--Equal parts of the oil of red cedar, combined with sarsaparilla, yellow dock and burdock made into a syrup; add to a pint of this syrup an ounce of gum guiaic.u.m. Dose, from a tablespoonful to a wine-gla.s.s, as best you can bear.

HOW TO CURE SORE THROAT.--"One who has tried it" communicates the following sensible item about curing sore throat: Let each one of your half million readers buy at any drug store one ounce of camphorated oil and five cents' worth of chloride of potash. Whenever any soreness appears in the throat, put the potash in half a tumbler of water, and with it gargle the throat thoroughly; then rub the neck thoroughly with the camphorated oil at night before going to bed, and also pin around the throat a small strip of woolen flannel. This is a simple, cheap and sure remedy.

LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS

Acacia--Concealed love.

Adonis Vernalis--Sorrowful remembrances.

Almond--Hope.

Aloe--Religious superst.i.tion.

Alyssum, Sweet--Worth beyond beauty.

Ambrosia--Love returned.