5597. How to Cure a Cold

5597.    How to Cure a Cold. Dr. G. Johnson, Professor of Medicine in King's College, London, in a recent lecture gives the following cure for a cold : On the whole, the plan which combines the greatest degree of efficiency with universal applicability, consists in the use of a simple hot-air bath, which the patient can have in his own bed-room. All that is required is a tin spirit lamp, with a sufficiently large wick, and holding sufficient spirit to burn for half an hour. The patient sits undressed in a chair with a lamp between his feet, rather than under the chair, care being taken to avoid setting fire to the blankets, of which an attendant takes two or three, and folds them around the patient from his neck to the floor, so as to inclose him and the lamp, the hot air from which passes freely around the body. In from a quarter to half an hour there is usually a free perspiration, which may be kept up for a time by getting into bed between hot blankets. Headache, pain in the limbs, and other premonitory indications of a severe cold, may be entirely removed in the course of half an hour by the action of the hot-air oath.

Another simple and efficient mode of exciting the action of the skin consists in wrapping the undressed patient in a sheet wrung out of warm water, then over this folding two or three blankets. The patient may remain thus packed for an hour or two, until free perspiration has been excited.

5598. Cough Pill

5598.    Cough Pill. Extract of hyosey-aiuus, balm of gilead buds, with pulverized ipecacuanha or lobelia, and balsam of fir, of each. 1/4 ounce; oil of anise a few drops, to form into common sized pills. Dose, 1 or 2 pills, 3 or 4 times daily. Dr. Beach says he endeavored for more than 25 years to obtain a medicine to fulfill the indications which are effected in this cough pill, particularly for ordinary colds and coughs ; and this admirably answers the intention, excelling all others. It allays the irritation of the mucus membrane, the bronchial tubes, and the lungs, and will be found exceedingly valuable in deep-seated coughs and all diseases of the chest.

5599. To Cure a Troublesome Cough

5599.    To Cure a Troublesome Cough. 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls of linseed, a small bunch of horehound; boil to a jelly, and strain. Add 1/2 pound sugar candy, 1/4 pound honey, 1/2 pound loaf sugar. First boil the horehound in 1 quart water, then add the strained linseed and the other articles. Simmer for 2 hours. When cold, add of chloro-dyne, 3 table-spoonfuls. Bottle it and cork tight. A small quantity of spirits of wine or brandy to keep it. When the cough is troublesome, take a table-spoonful. This is an excellent remedy.

5600. Pulmonary Syrup

5600.    Pulmonary Syrup. Blood-root, boneset, slippery elm bark, coltsfoot, elecampane, of each 2 ounces; white root, spikenard root, of each 4 ounces; comfrey root, poplar bark, of each 1 ounce; lobelia, horehound, snake-root, of each 1/2 ounce. Pour upon them 2 quarts of boiling water; stir well, add 1 pound molasses, and, when cool, 1 quart Holland gin. It is one of the best remedies for asthma, coughs, hoarseness, etc.. A table-spoonful every hour, or a wine-glassful 3 times a day.