When the proper number have been applied, they should be left quite alone, or they are apt to unfix, and, wandering about, arc of no further use. When they have sucked their fill, they generally drop off, and should then be put in a plate with a little salt, which quickly makes them throw up the blood; and, as soon as they have emptied themselves, they should be put into plenty of fresh cold water, so that they may get free from the salt, for if left in it, or if too much be put on them, they contract violently, and die almost immediately.

After the leeches have come off, the bleeding from the wounds is to be encouraged, by first quickly sponging off whatever clotted blood there may be, and then covering the part with a warm bread-and-water poultice, which must be changed every half hour, so long as it may be thought necessary to keep up the bleeding. This is much better than leaving the surface exposed, and mopping with a warm sponge, which is very fatiguing to the patient, besides exposing him to the danger of taking cold.

If a leech-bite continue bleeding for some hours, and the person, more especially if an infant, begins to be very faint, and the countenance and lips pallid and cold, like marble, no time must be lost in stopping the bleeding.

This is done by pressure with the finger; but, if that fail, by applying caustic, or by running a moderate-sized darning needle into the skin on one. side of the bite, and bringing its point well out on the other side. The whole wound is thus lifted up, and a piece of silk or strong thread, is then to be wound round and round the bite, under the two ends of the needle. This will raise it up like a small spot, and generally stops the bleeding very effectually. In four days cut the silk and draw out the needle carefully, and there the matter usually ends. But in a peculiar state of constitution, sometimes even after the removal of the needle and thread, the bleeding will continue. Nothing then remains, but to touch the bottom of the wound with a bit of thin iron wire heated white-hot, which never fails to stop the bleeding. Though this may seem a very horrible proceeding, it is not very painful if the iron be white-hot, as it destroys sensation in an instant; but whether it give pain or not is a matter of no consequence, as it is the only sure mode of saving the patient.

Pimples

A weak solution of sugar of lead or sulphate of zinc may be used as a wash; if not effective, try - camphorated spirit, two drachms, corrosive sublimate of mercury, one grain, rose water or almond water half a pint, to be applied night and morning. When there is great irritability of the skin, a decoction of the woody nightshade may be used instead of the rose or almond-water. If pimples arise from the condition of the blood, then cooling purgatives must be taken. A Plummer's pill at night, and a tea-spoonful of decoction of Sarsaparilla twice a day with salts and senna once a week, are excellent medicines.

For Chicken-Pox

Let the patient partake freely of water or cooling drinks, as thirst is always an attendant on the disease, and gentle laxatives should be occasionally given, - a teaspoonful of lenitive electuary with a little milk of sulphur in it, is all that is generally required; but should febrile symptoms run high, it may be advisable to take two or three saline draughts during the day. The following is a recipe for an excellent saline, to be drunk while effervescing. Twenty grains of carbonate of soda dissolved in a tumbler containing two table-spoonfuls of water; add two teaspoon-fuls of lump-sugar rolled; then put a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice into a wine-glass (or fifteen grains of citric acid dissolved in one table-spoonful of water.) Pour it into the tumbler and drink it while the effervescence is taking place.

Croup

The cause of this disease is a morbid secretion of thick mucus in the trachea (windpipe), adhering so firmly to its sides as to impede respiration.

A warm bath should immediately be administered, and an emetic given as soon as possible; say, ten drops of anti-monial wine for a child of three years of age, and repeated every quarter of an hour, until effectual, and according to the age and strength of the patient: a blister should be applied across the throat, the sufferer being made to inhale the vapor of warm water with vinegar in it, and kept nearly upright in bed. A doctor should be procured as soon as possible.

Children liable to this disease should be warmly clad, wearing flannel next the skin, and an emetic given upon the earliest appearance of the attack.

Elder-flower Ointment is the mildest, blandest, and most cooling ointment, as the old women term it, which can be used, and is very suitable for anointing the face or neck, when sun-burnt. It is made of fresh Elder-flowers stripped from the stalks, two pounds of which are simmered in an equal quantity of hog's lard till they become crisp, after which the ointment, whilst fluid, is strained through a coarse sieve.

Chilblains

The mode of prevention of chilblains will be at once perceived, viz.:- To protect the parts most liable to the attack (hands and feet) from sudden alternations, either from cold to heat, or from heat to cold. To keep the constitution in such a healthy state, as to make all parts possess such vitality as to be able to resist slight alternations in temperature.

Woollen stockings or socks, and warm, boots and shoes, should be worn in the street. Warm leather gloves are better for the hands than woollen ones, through which the dry frosty air is apt to pierce and chap the hands. Tight wristbands, tight garters, and boots that lace or button tightly about the ankles, must be avoided. The most frequent cause of chilblain is the warming of numbed hands or feet at the fire. A good constitutional remedy is small doses of tartrate of antimony wine, which constringe the enlarged vessels. A drachm of the wine may be added to half a pint of water, in which a drachm of saltpetre has been dissolved. Dose: for an adult one or two table-spoonfuls every four hours; for a child, one or two teaspoonfuls three times a day. It should not be given in such doses as to produce vomiting. The head, neck, and chest, should be washed in cold water every morning, and brisk exercise taken at regular hours.