Household Companion: The Family Doctor

This book tells how to detect disease and apply the best remedy for it. It gives practical directions for taking the principal medicines, how to nurse and care for the sick, what to do in case of accidents or poisoning, and gives valuable advice on the laws of health, the prevention of disease, food for the sick, and various kinds of medical treatment.

Title	Household Companion: The Family Doctor
Author	Alice A. Johnson, Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill, Dr. Henry HartShorne
Publisher	M.L. Dewsnap
Year	1909
Copyright	1909

A Practical Reference Work For Housekeepers

Household Companion

---------Comprising--------

A Complete Cook Book—Practical Household Recipes, Aids And Hints For Household Decorations; The Care Of Domestic Plants And Animals And A Treatise On Domestic Medicine

Including a Chapter on TUBERCULOSIS The Great White Plague A CURABLE AND PREVENTABLE DISEASE

—By—

Dr. Lawrence F. Flick

Medical Director of the Henry Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis

General Editors Of The Work:

Alice A. Johnson -- Graduate in Domestic Science of Drexel Institute, Philadelphia
Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill -- Editor of the Boston Cooking School Journal
Dr. Henry Hartshorne, M.D.. Ll.D. -- Author of "Essential of Practical Medicine"
and Other Specialists

Profusely Illustrated With Color Plates, Half-Tone Engravings and Text Pictures

Book V. Part I. Tuberculosis: The entire nation has been aroused to fight The Great White Plague and stamp it out of existence. Millions have died of this dread disease, and its terrible ...

The Microscopic World.: With Pasteur's discovery of the micro-organic world civilization entered upon a new epoch. With it many of the phenomena of life which had not been understood ...

What Consumption is.: Consumption is caused by the growth of certain microorganisms in the tissue of our bodies. These micro-organisms grow in us in the same way as wheat, timothy ...

What Is Tuberculosis?: Tuberculosis is the implantation and growth of the tubercle bacillus in the tissues of a human being or an animal. The tubercle bacillus as a living entity ...

Distinction between Consumption and Tuberculosis.: In the popular mind consumption and tuberculosis are one and the same thing. They are not the same thing, however, and it is worth while keeping the ...

Colds, Influenza and Pneumonia in relation to Tuberculosis.: Colds, influenza and pneumonia have been looked upon as causes of consumption and are still regarded as such. They are not primary causes but secondary causes.

History of Consumption.: Consumption has existed in the world as long back as history records anything. It is found in every part of the habitable globe. It has been a plague upon the ...

Is Tuberculosis Inherited?: The old idea was that tuberculosis was inherited. People got this idea because they saw the disease occur so frequently in families, and saw it run through two ...

Predisposition to Tuberculosis.: Whilst the disease cannot be inherited a predisposition to it may be inherited. Some families undoubtedly are more prone to tuberculosis than others. This is ...

Diseases as Predisposing Causes of Consumption.: There are some diseases which predispose to consumption. They do this in two ways, by changing the contour of the body and by modifying the tissues of the body.

Dissipation as a Predisposing Cause.: Dissipation is a predisposing cause of consumption. In this way consumption is the wages of sin. Dissipation is a scattering of vital forces by excessive ...

Want and Overwork as Predisposing Causes.: Two of the most potent predisposing causes of consumption are want and overwork. This is why tuberculosis is so largely a disease of the poor. Want means not ...

Alcohol in Tuberculosis.: In olden times and among a great many people even now alcohol is looked upon as a protection and a cure of consumption. It is neither, but on the contrary is a ...

Climate and Tuberculosis.: It used to be taught that the only cure for tuberculosis was climate, and lots of people still have an idea that climate is a very important factor in both the ...

Immunity in Tuberculosis.: There is a resistance to tuberculosis in human beings which is called immunity. Most people possess it in some degree, but some to a much greater degree than ...

Contagiousness of Tuberculosis.: Tuberculosis being due to a living thing is communicable from one person to another and cannot be gotten except by communication from a previous case. The mode ...

Mode of Contagion of Tuberculosis.: The contagion of tuberculosis is always contained in broken down tissue given off by the person who has the disease. Usually this tissue is thrown off in the ...

How Contagion can be Prevented.: A tuberculous subject should always put every particle of broken down tissue into a receptacle immediately when it is given off. If he expectorates he should ...

Consumption a House Disease.: Consumption has been called a house disease because it is in the house or rather in an enclosure of some kind that the disease is usually conveyed from one ...

Hotels and Boarding Houses as Means of Spreading: Tuberculosis. Hotels and boarding houses sometimes become the media of spreading tuberculosis, although perhaps not as often as people think. The occupancy of ...

Servants and Employees as Spreaders of Tuberculosis.: Servants and employees sometimes give tuberculosis to their employers or to their fellow employees. A consumptive cook, for instance, could very easily infect ...

Contracting Tuberculosis in the School Room.: Much fear has been expressed by some of the danger of contracting tuberculosis in the schoolroom. A consumptive teacher may give the disease to his pupils, and ...

Contracting Tuberculosis in Churches and Public Places.: Churches and public places may become infected with the contagion of tuberculosis, but contagion in such places rarely becomes intense enough to give the ...

Contracting Tuberculosis in Public Conveyances.: There is really very little danger of contracting tuberculosis in public conveyances although some people have a great fear of getting the disease in this way.

Getting Tuberculosis on the Street.: As has already been intimated there is practically no danger of getting tuberculosis on the street. Rain, sunshine and fresh air very quickly devitalize the ...

Relationship between Human and Bovine Tuberculosis.: There has been a great deal of discussion of late on the relationship between human and animal tuberculosis. There is a wide difference of opinion as to the ...

How the Tubercle Bacillus gets into the System.: In this connection it may be worth while considering how the tubercle bacillus gets into the system. It may get in by the skin, by the stomach and by the lungs.

Duration of Tuberculosis.: Tuberculosis is a long-drawn-out, tedious disease under ordinary circumstances. It is a long time before it shows itself after implantation and frequently it ...

Remedies for Tuberculosis.: There is no specific remedy for tuberculosis but there are a great many remedies which when skilfully used at the proper time help nature win the victory. The ...

Food in the Treatment of Tuberculosis.: As the digestive organs and all those parts of the body which have to do with nutrition have been weakened by the disease it is important to select food which ...

Fresh Air in the Treatment of Tuberculosis.: The taking of food means very little unless the patient remains in the open air or at least gets enough fresh air to properly oxidize the food. Air is as ...

Rest and Exercise in the Treatment of Tuberculosis.: Rest and properly graded exercise are important factors in the treatment of tuberculosis. So long as a tuberculous patient is below normal weight and is ...

Slowness of Recovery from Tuberculosis.: With the very best treatment recovery from tuberculosis is a very slow process. Restoration of physical health comes much quicker than complete recovery from ...

Preventability of Tuberculosis.: The most consoling feature of the modern teachings about tuberculosis is that the disease is preventable and can be wiped out. What has life and depends upon ...

The Consumptive Protects Himself by Protecting Others.: Every consumptive can avoid giving the disease to others. If he knows what to do and is willing to do it he can make himself absolutely noncontagious and can ...

The Government in the Prevention of Tuberculosis.: The government is alive to the importance of stamping out tuberculosis and is everywhere cooperating. Boards of Health are ready to disinfect houses without ...

Groundless Fear of Consumption.: The nervous and timid nowadays are so much afraid of getting consumption that they treat the poor consumptive inhumanely. There is no ground for such fear and ...

Should Consumptives Marry?: Should consumptives marry? This is a question which is often asked and the enactment of a law prohibiting marriage has even been agitated. Consumption is not ...

Should the Consumptive Mother Suckle her Child?: Another matter which bears somewhat on this question is whether a consumptive mother should suckle her child. As a rule she may do so for some months at least.

Book V. Part II. The Family Doctor: The reputation of Dr. Hartshorne, the author of this department, ranks high among those of our general physicians, and these pages from his pen will be ...

The Family Doctor: Illustrations: The Good Doctor And His Little Patient. Though the little life is saved through the devoted doctor's skill, the flame for awhile flickers low, and the parents' ...

What Is Disease: It was a rather strange idea of a recent distinguished writer upon Hygiene, that perhaps, if we understood perfectly all the laws of health, and obeyed them ...

Causes of Disease.: These may be stated together, thus: as causes which are Hereditary: examples (though not always inherited), consumption, gout, epilepsy, cancer. Functional: ...

Hereditary Disease: We often see consumption affecting several members of the same family through several generations. The same is true of insanity. Gout is many times transmitted ...

Functional Causation.: Over-exertion may produce exhaustion, which, in a person before feeble, may end in death. Or, short of this, there may be brought on a state of weakness slow ...

Mechanical Injuries.: Broken limbs, displaced joints, and wounds, are often causes of disease. Tight-lacing is also a mechanical cause of interruption to the right action of the ...

Conditional Causes.: By these we mean high heat, great cold, dampness, sudden changes and partial exposures of the body to either extreme, or electrical influences; these last ...

Digestive Morbid Causes.: Excess of food may cause indigestion at the time; and, if often repeated, habitual indigestion called dyspepsia. A less amount of excess or superfluity may ...

Obstructive Causes.: Everything that interferes with the clearing out from the body of all waste and dead material, by the excretions, tends to injure health. Breathing foul air, ...

Contagion.: This is, strictly defined, conveyance of disease by touch or contact. But some (not all) disorders, which may be transmitted by actual touch, pass also to a ...

Infection: Atmospheric Causation.: Certain places, at particular times, are infected with maladies which attack a greater or less number of those living or visiting there. Some of these diseases ...

Nature Of Diseases: Children sometimes die of old age. That is, their original endowment of life energy was so small as to be exhausted during infancy. Others die very soon ...

Irritation.: An eye is irritated when a spark from a locomotive, or a bit of sand, or an inverted eyelash, get into it. A mustard-plaster first stimulates the circulation ...

Inflammation.: All the world knows when a hand, a foot, or an eye is inflamed. Proverbially, the signs of this are redness, heat, pain, and swelling. The redness is owing to ...

Hypertrophy or Overgrowth.: Overgrowth is the meaning of this word; increase in size without essential change in the nature of a part. An organ may enlarge very much, with a great change ...

Atrophy and Degeneration.: Atrophy is the opposite to hypertrophy. Want of blood or of the supply of nervous energy will cause an organ to shrink away. So a palsied hand often, in time, ...

Dropsy.: Seldom does an accumulation of water occur in one part of the body without some previous general disorder of the system, or at least an affection of some of ...

Mortification.: When a part, as a toe, a whole foot, leg, or arm dies, while the rest of the body lives, it is said to mortify, slough, or suffer gangrene. Once in a while the ...

Morbid Growths.: Warts, corns, bunions, wens, moles, bony enlargements, fibrous and fatty tumors, are all unsightly, and the last named may be considerably inconvenient. But ...

General Disorders: We may name these as debility, anaemia, plethora, cochexio, neuratoxia, toxaemia, and fever.

Debility.: One is apt to feel weak, when anything whatever is the matter. This may arise from loss of blood, from excessive fatigue, from continued illness, or from a ...

Anaemia and Plethora.: Poverty of blood may result from various diseases, or from loss of blood, too long nursing, etc. Weakness accompanies it, of the kind above called exhaustion.

Cachexia or Diathesis.: By this is meant some abnormal condition of the constitution. Leukæmia (or leucocythæmia) is a disease in which there is an excess of white or colorless ...

Toxæmia: Blood-Poisoning.: Blood-poisoning can never be a trifling thing. We should be in deadly danger of it every day, but that so much is arranged in our bodies not only to prevent it.

Fever.: When one has a hot, dry skin, a glowing red cheek, thirst, a rapid pulse, and weakness of body, with more or less dulness or disturbance of the mental ...

Classification Of Diseases: Various plans of arrangement have been proposed, and are in use. I prefer to name all diseases as either Inflammations and ToxÆmic disorders, Cachectic ...

Signs and Symptoms of Diseases.: On approaching a sick person, our first question, whether put into words or not, is naturally, Is there much the matter? Other inquiries follow, such as these: ...

Symptoms Affecting the Skin.: The skin is hot and dry in fever. Moisture is nearly always a favorable sign. Exceptions are, the cold and clammy perspiration of great prostration, and the ...

Symptoms Presented by the Mouth, etc.: The TONGUE is pale, in anaemic persons; red in scarlet fever, inflamed mouth, and sometimes when the stomach is inflamed (gastritis); furred, in indigestion, ...

The Throat.: Difficulty of swallowing may result from inflammation of the tonsils or gullet (pharynx); spasmodic closure of the throat; permanent narrowing or stricture of ...

The Stomach.: Appetite is almost always deficient in both acute and chronic disease; most so, however, in the former, as a rule. Perverted appetite occurs in case of ...

Symptoms Belonging to the Circulation.: Palpitation, or disturbed action of the heart, may depend upon inflammation of its membranes (pericarditis, endocarditis), enlargement (hypertrophy ox ...

Hemorrhage.: While bleeding from any part of the body is often an important symptom, it needs to be interpreted with care. Its consequence depends greatly on its quantity ...

Symptoms Connected with the Breathing Organs.: Sixteen to eighteen times in a minute is the ordinary rate of breathing while at rest, in health, for a grown person. In fever it is almost always a good deal ...

Symptoms Affecting the Muscles.: Position is often significant in disease. Inability to rise may be owing to general weakness, palsy, inflammation of the joints, etc.) as from rheumatism or ...

Symptoms Connected with our Senses.: Pain is variously interpreted, according to its place and character. It may be Acute, sharp, cutting, as in pleurisy; shooting, darting, as in neuralgia; ...

The Eye in Disease.: Blood-shot eyes show either inflammation of them or fulness of blood in the head, which is often present in fevers. If one eye only is very red, of course the ...

The Ears.: Pain in one of the ears, earache, may be either inflammatory or neuralgic. Other signs must be considered along with it to show which it is. Ringing in the ...

Headache.: Pain in the head may depend in different cases upon neuralgia, rheumatism, overfulness of blood (congestion hyperemia); blood-poisoning (as by alcohol, opium, ...

Expression of the Face.: Acute disease is apt to alter this more than that which is chronic; but it is often changed in both. An anxious or distressed expression giving way to serenity ...

Delirium.: This is a disorder or confusion of mind, in acute disease, not fixed for a long time like insanity, but depending upon a temporary cause. It is present in many ...

Stupor.: Coma is the medical word for this. It is an unnaturally deep sleep, from which one cannot be roused. We meet with it chiefly in the following: Alcoholic ...

Symptoms Affecting the Secretions: The Bowels.: Constipation (tightness of the bowels; absence or rarity of movement, and smallness of amount discharged) is almost always present during the first days of a ...

Excretion of the Kidneys.: Symptoms connected with this excretion are: strangury (difficult urination), incontinence of urine (want of control, especially during sleep), retention, ...

Qualities of the Urine.: About forty, or from thirty to fifty, fluid ounces (a quart, more or less) of urine is passed by a healthy grown person every twenty-four hours. It may be ...

Perspiration.: Besides deficiency and excess in this important secretion of the skin, it is a familiar fact that it has, in some persons, a very unpleasant odor, especially ...

Remedies And Their Application: Do doctors, properly speaking, cure the diseases and injuries of their patients ? Yes, and no. Cure comes from a Latin word meaning care; to take care of ...

To Relieve Pain.: Much depends on where the pain is, and of what sort. Annodynes are medicines whose action is to quell pain, by their influence upon the brain or nerves. But we ...

Remedy for Pain in Abdomen.: A safe and often very useful remedy for pain in the abdomen, or, indeed, anywhere else, is the outward application of a mustard-plaster. When doubtful what ...

Other Seats of Pain.: Pain in the head is of several kinds, and dependent on several causes. Very seldom are anodynes suitable as remedies for headache, because they all act more or ...

Composing Nervous Disturbance.: What this requires depends very greatly on the cause and nature of the trouble. For infants, as well as older persons, nervous disturbance may vary all the way ...

Promotion of Sleep.: When sleeplessness comes as one of the symptoms of a disease, it may not have to be dealt with by itself, at least with medicine, unless it be more prolonged ...

Purgative Medicines.: A large number of drugs act upon the bowels; cathartics is a technical name for these. Only a few of them need to be considered in connection with our present ...

To Check Diarrhoea.: Not every looseness of the bowels ought to be stopped at once by medicine. Sometimes it is a relief to a condition of the system which would involve a worse ...

Sick Stomach.: As this occurs under a variety of circumstances, the main treatment of every case must depend upon its nature and cause. We may name, however, several remedies ...

Indigestion.: A much overloaded stomach is best relieved by being made to throw out its contents under the action of an emetic. This is, however, a harsh remedy, not ...

Continued Weak Digestion.: The class of medicines which particularly tone up a weak and relaxed stomach are the simple vegetable bitters. Such are quassia, columbo, gentian, and some ...

To Reduce Inflammation.: A serious task, this is, in many instances; taxing the doctor's skill, and not very rarely baffling him. How, then, can one say anything about it in a work on ...

Means Used in Reducing Inflammation.: For this purpose, the means available in different cases are, chiefly, these: Rest; Position; Cold; Diet; Purgation; Blood-letting; Cooling Medicines; Nervous ...

Cooling or Sedative Medicines.: Cooling (sedative) medicines are in place chiefly in inflammatory affections of the breathing organs, as pneumonia, bronchitis), and pleurisy. Tartar emetic is ...

Dealing with Fever.: Reminding the reader of what was said, a few pages back, of the nature and signs of fever, it may be said now, that what we want to do when those signs {heat, ...

Fever: Dryness of Skin.: Dryness of the skin is a regular symptom of fever. The most frequent exception to it is in the febrile state of inflammatory rheumatism; in which the skin, ...

Fever: Diet and Treatment.: Weakness, in fever, is not quite the same thing early in the attack as towards its end. In the first place it is an oppression of the system; after a while ...

Cough.: How many different kinds and cases of cough there are, we have already mentioned when considering it among the symptoms of disease. It cannot be treated ...

Dealing with Hemorrhage.: What causes bleeding must always be the first question. If it is a symptom of a disease, the necessity of treating the disease rather than the bleeding is ...

Bleeding in the Mouth.: When a tooth has been pulled, or in an infant, the gums have been freely lanced, sometimes considerable bleeding will occur. If from a tooth, a plug of cotton ...

Spitting of Blood.: Is it from the lungs, or from the throat, mouth, or nostrils? Not unfrequently, bleeding from the nose goes backwards, into the throat, and the blood, then ...

Intestinal Bleeding.: For hemorrhage from the bowels, the same kind of management is applicable as that appropriate when blood is thrown up from the stomach; as just described.

Monthly Irregularities.: For delayed monthly courses it is desirable to produce a determination of blood towards the lower part of the abdomen. Hot foot-baths, and warm hip-or sitting- ...

Dealing with Dropsy.: For our purpose, in this place, it may be said that there are three classes of dropsical troubles: general dropsy (anasarca), superficial local dropsy (æedema), ...

Prostration: Debility.: We have seen already that there is more than one kind of weakness from disease. There may be oppression, as in the early stage of almost any acute disorder; or ...

General Debility.: After an acute disease with fever--as scarlet fever, measles, typhoid fever, etc. convalescence is accompanied by more or less debility. But when everything ...

Treatment for Debility.: To meet these, we have, besides rest from care, change of air, and generous feeding (all of which are of the greatest importance), three sorts of tonics: blood- ...

Remedies for Special Diseases.: We have very few real and certian specifics for the cure of particular diseases. The great boast of the medical profession is of its power to stop chills and ...

Principal Medicines And Other Remedies: For the reader's convenience, we will now give a brief account of the principal medicine in general use likely to be particularly mentioned in the following, ...

Acetate of Ammonium Solution.: This is a mild, moderately cooling medicine, very suitable to promote perspiration during fever. It is easily made by dropping small pieces of Carbonate of ...

Aconite.: Tincture of the Root of the Monkshood or Aconite plant. A deadly sedative poison in any but very small doses. It acts mainly on the nervous system, but ...

Aloes.: A powerful purgative medicine, having a particular tendency to act on the lower bowel. Therefore it is not a suitable cathartic in cases of Piles. Yet, in a ...

Alum.: A mineral called a salt by chemists . It contains either Ammonium or Potassium with Aluminium and Sulpuric acid in combination. (There is also an Iron Alum, in ...

Ammonia.: Volatile Alkali and Hartshorn are other names for this substance. When pure, it is a gas; but it is used either in the form of the Solid Carbonate of Ammonium, ...

Arnica.: The tincture of the flowers (or of the whole plant) is a popular application for bruises and sprains. It is a warming application, and not suitable where the ...

Arsenic.: A metal whose compounds are poisonous. The medical form in which arsenic is generally prescribed by physicians is the solution of arsenite of potassium (Fowler' ...

Assafoetida.: A gum-resin, of very disagreeable odor and taste; a good, mild, and safe composing medicine for disturbed nerves and to induce sleep. Assafoetida pills, of ...

Bark, Peruvian.: See Quinine.

Baths.: In treatment of disease, the kinds of baths most used are the warm and the hot bath. We may call it warm from 900 to 960 Fahr., and hot from 960 to 100 . It ...

Belladonna.: This product of the deadly nightshade (atropa belladonna) is a powerful narcotic or brain stimulant drug. The extract of the leaves is most used by physicians ...

Benzoin.: A resinous substance, from the styrax, an Fast Indian tree. The compound tincture of Benzoin is a good medicine for bronchial cough. Dose, fifteen to twenty ...

Bismuth Subnitrate.: A soothing stomachic medicine. Dose, two to five grains.

Blackberry Root: Country people generally know the astringent property of this; but some make a mistake in supposing the berries to have the same; which they do not. A tea made ...

Blisters.: We use mustard-plasters not to blister, but only strongly to warm and stimulate the skin. For raising a blister, cantharides is mostly resorted to. The oldest ...

Borax.: A very familiar article this is, in the nursery, for sore mouth. It is a mineral astringent, milder than alum, and may be used more freely; either dissolved in ...

Cajuput Oil.: An aromatic greenish (or, when old, reddish) oil, from the leaves of an East Indian tree; one of the best remedies for flatulent colic, especially when gouty; ...

Calomel.: Chloride of mercury. See above, under blue pill. Calomel is a white powder. Dose, from one-twelfth of a grain, for an infant, to one-half grain, one grain, or ...

Camphor.: A most useful gum, from evergreen tree native to the south and east of Asia. Everyone knows its white or colorless transparency, its peculiar odor, and pungent ...

Carbolic Acid.: This has no proper place as a domestic medicine. It has had great popularity as a disinfectant; more than it deserves, in comparison with several other less ...

Cardamon Seeds, Compound Tincture of.: A warming aromatic preparation, often added to soda, etc., for sickness of the stomach. Dose, a teaspoonful, in water.

Castor-Oil.: Expressed from the beans of the palma christi, a handsome plant, originally from Asia. It is nasty, decidedly; but is a good, effective, and yet mild purgative ...

Catechu.: An extract from the wood of an oriental tree. It is astringent, and is very useful in diarrhoea. Tincture of catechu is the best preparation. Dose, half a ...

Cerate.: This word means something made with wax. Simple cerate is made of spermaceti, white wax, and oil of almonds. It is a very soothing and healing application to ...

Chalk Mixture.: A convenient medicine for common diarrhoea, made of prepared chalk, gum-arabic, glycerine, and cinnamon water. Dose, a tablespoonful for a grown person. Most ...

Chamomile.: This is a plant with bitter and aromatic flowers. Of these a tea is made with boiling water. It may be taken, half a pint daily, as a simple appetizer and ...

Charcoal.: Powdered charcoal is a good sweetener of a stomach oppressed with flatulence from indigestion. Dose, half a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful. It is often given ...

Chloral (cholral hydrate).: One of the medicines that promote sleep. It is less powerful than opium, although a very large amount of it taken will poison fatally. It is a white ...

Chlorate of Potassium (chlorate of potash, commonly called).: A favorite medicine with physicians and others, for sore mouth and sore throat. It often does more good to sore mouths, in babies especially, than anything ...

Chloroform.: The most prompt and powerful, but also least safe, of the articles used by surgeons as anaesthetics; that is, for patients to breathe before and during opera- ...

Cinnamon Water.: Made from the aromatic bark of the cinnamon tree of the East. It is a pleasant spicy solution, slightly astringent; good with other things in mixtures for ...

Citrate of Magnesium.: Commonly taken in effervescent solution. It is about the least disagreeable of all purgative medicines. Apothecaries mostly keep it already dissolved, in ...

Citrate of Potassium.: Like the citrate just mentioned, this has for one ingredient citric acid, obtained from lemon or lime-juice. This is neutralized by potassium (an alkaline ...

Cloves Oil: A strong, warming aromatic, from flower-buds of the caryophyllus aromaticus of the East Indies. A hot tea is sometimes made of cloves, to be given in cholera- ...

Cocoa Butter.: Cocoa butter is a good Soothing application for bruises of any part of the body. It is well always to have it in the house.

Cod-Liver Oil.: Obtained, as its name indicates, from the livers of codfish. It is very nourishing and fattening to wasted and wasting bodies, sometimes checking the progress ...

Colchicum.: A plant whose root and seeds are both used medicinally. The wine of the root is the best preparation. In large dose it acts on the bowels; sometimes irritating ...

Cold Cream.: This is the unguentum aquæ rosæ (ointment of rose-water) of the apothecaries. It is a soft, easily melted, and very soothing application for sore places, ...

Collodion.: This is a solution of gun-cotton in ether. When it is painted upon any surface the ether evaporates leaving a thin cottony film. Flexible collodion, made a ...

Columbo.: (Calumba, root of an African plant) is one of the simple vegetable bitters, Like the rest of its class, it is a tonic to the stomach. It is given sometimes for ...

Cream of Tartar (Bitartrate of Potassium.: This is a cooling, mild purgative salt, which also increases the flow of urine (diuretic). It is very often given in dropsy. Dose, one or two teaspoonfuls, ...

Creosote.: A product of tar. A hot-tasting, sooty-smelling liquid; poisonous if swallowed in moderately large quantity; burning the mouth or skin which it touches.

Digitalis (Foxglove).: Foxglove is the common name of the pretty plant whose leaves furnish this medicine. The tincture is most used. Physicians give it often when the action of the ...

Dover's Powder.: Made of ipecacuanha, opium, and a cooling salt (sulphate of potassium, or some similar compound), this medicine is composing and diaphoretic. Some persons find ...

Effervescing Draught.: This is a cooling medicine for fever; the carbolic acid gas in it also makes it acceptable to the stomach. It is composed on the following recipe: Dissolve two ...

Electricity.: Physicians often advise (or themselves personally apply) different forms of electricity for the treatment especially of baralysis; also, for neuralgia lead ...

Elixir of Vitriol.: Aromatic sulphuric acid is another name for this, which is often prescribed as an appetizer; sometimes also for diarrhoea, and occasionally for hemorrhages.

Elixir Proprietatis (Elixir Pro.): This is an old name for tincture of aloes and myrrh; which has a popular reputation as a medicine to bring on the monthly courses when delayed or suppressed.

Emetics.: Articles which cause vomiting. The most important occasion for their use is when poison is known to have been swallowed. Then the quicker and the more ...

Epsom Salts.: Sulphate of Magnesium, A very unpleasant medicine to the taste; an active, cooling cathartic. It's (its nastiness apart) useful as a purgative in some ...

Ergot: Spurred Rye.: A growth on grains of diseased rye plants. When taken into the stomach, it has a tendency to promote contraction of the womb and of the blood-vessels. On ...

Eucalyptus.: From the leaves of this Australian tree a tincture is made, as well as a solid extract, and the essential oil, eucalyptol. Lozenges of this drug are ...

Fennel-Seed.: A very mild aromatic; sometimes made into a tea for babies' colic; more often added to senna tea, ox fluid extract of senna, to keep the purgative medicine ...

Flaxseed.: This makes a good soothing drink, flaxseed tea, for sore throat. Pour half a pint of boiling water upon a table-spoonful of whole flaxseed, and stir it up for ...

Fly-Blister.: A plaster of the ointment of Spanish flies (cantharides), applied to draw a blister upon some part of the surface of the body. Such a remedy is only required ...

Gentian.: A flowering plant, whose root is used in medicine. Its extract is made into tonic pills (compound gentian pills) for indigestion, and its compound tincture is ...

Geranium.: This plant has an astringent root, of which a tea may be made by boiling an ounce (about two tablespoonfuls) in a pint and a half of water down to a pint. Of ...

Ginger.: A fine spice for culinary as well as medicinal use. Jamaica ginger is the most used with us. Essence of ginger is a very good medicine to have in the house. It ...

Glycerine.: A sweet, transparent liquid, obtained from fatty substances. Only pure glycerine (Bower's or Price's) should be used. Its principal employment is as an ...

Gum-Arabic.: A soothing (not nourishing) material for a drink, in cases of irritation of the throat, or cough. It is simply dissolved in water, a tablespoonful to a half ...

Hoffmann's Anodyne.: A strong warming stimulant to the nervous system, with some anodyne or pain-relieving power. It is useful in attacks of gout in the stomach or heart, ...

Hops.: A Hop-pillow is sometimes used for sleeplessness. To prepare it, fill a small pillow-case with hops, which have been sprinkled with alcohol to bring out the ...

Hot Water.: Hot water, as a means of conveying heat to the interior of the body, is a stimulant to the stomach, to the great nerve centres back of the stomach, and to the ...

Hunyadi Janos Water.: A laxative (mildly purgative) mineral water, sold in bottles. Dose, a wineglassful.

Huxham's Tincture of Peruvian Bark.: A good tonic in feeble conditions of the body, as in slow convalescence from an illness, running down with work in summer time, etc. Dose, a teaspoonful, three ...

Hydrochlorate of Cocaine.: A preparation of the active principle of the leaves of the South American erythroxylon coca It has been found, when applied (a few drops of a four per cent.

Hyoscyamus.: From the leaves of this plant (henbane) are made a solid extract, a fluid extract, and a tincture. Hyoscyamus is an anodyne; a good deal like opium in its ...

Hypopiiosphites.: Compounds containing phosphorus, in a peculiar state of combination with other medical substances Much used as an effective tonic, in low states of the system, ...

lngluvin.: An extractive obtained from the gizzard of the common fowl, and, like pepsin, used as a tonic to the digestive organs. Some physicans report it to be very ...

Inhalation.: This is breathing in vapor of some kind; which is considerably employed in the treatment of diseases, especially of the throat and lungs; as well as (by the ...

Injections (enema, enemata).: These are used for various purposes. Most commonly, into the bowels, to empty the lower bowel, when this is considered more prompt and convenient than medicine ...

Iodine.: Lugol's iodine solution, the tincture of iodine, and iodide of potassium, all have medical uses; but not, as a rule, in domestic practice. We may except, ...

Iodoform.: A powerful drug, kept in the apothecary shops in the form of a powder. Sometimes prescribed as an internal medicine in scrofula, ulcer of the stomach, etc., in ...

Ipecacuanha.: This is an active but mild emetic in large dose. In smaller quantities, it is an excellent loosener of cough (expectorant), and also a promoter of perspiration ...

Iron.: There is iron in the blood of every man, woman, and child. Whether we ever have too much of it is not certain; but, without doubt, many thin, pale, and weak ...

Jalap.: This is a very active purgative; too much so for common use, but sometimes valuable in particular cases. In dropsy it is occasionally prescribed, along with ...

Juniper.: The berries of the juniper tree or shrub; used in medicine is as a diuretic in dropsy. A tea may be made by pouring a pint of boiling water upon half an ounce ...

Lactucarium.: An extract from the common garden lettuce (lactuca). It is mildly narcotic and anodyne; promoting sleep like opium, but with much less power. The syrup of ...

Lady Webster's Pills.: The important thing in these is aloes. They are purgative, and, like other aloetic preparations, have some effect in promoting a tendency of blood towards the ...

Laudanum.: Tincture of opium. One of the strongest of the opiate medicines. It is therefore a powerful anodyne and hypnotic (sleep-producer). Dose, for a grown person, ...

Lavender.: Aromatic flowers, well known for their pleasing perfume. The only preparation used as a medicine is the compound spirit of lavender. It is an agreeable warming, ...

Lead, Sugar of.: A cooling application, often used for inflammations. Lead-water may be made by dissolving it in water; but with greater convenience by adding to water the ...

Lime-water.: Simply a solution of lime in water. Anybody can make it, by putting pure, clean, unslaked lime in pure water. Take a large bottle, and press into it enough ...

Liquorice, also spelled Licorice.: The root of an herb growing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Extract is chiefly used. It is black, hard, and sweet. There is also a fluid extract.

Lobelia.: The leaves and tops of this plant are employed best in the form of tincture. It is a powerful sedative medicine; capable, like tobacco, in large doses, of ...

Logwood.: The reddish heartwood of a Central American tree. It was once more used than now, as a mild astringent for diarrhæa. A tea may be made of it by boiling an ...

Magnesia.: A valuable home medicine, as an antacid laxative. It is particularly good when there is constipation, with sick stomach and headache. Even at the beginning of ...

Malt Extract.: Especially in Germany, large use is made of preparations under this name. As sold in this country, some of them are too sweet to agree with the stomach. The ...

Manna.: A sweet substance obtained from the trunk of the flowerish ash tree, in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. Its only important use is to open the ...

Mineral Waters.: These may be classified simply as: 1. Alkaline. 2. Saline. 3. Sulphurous. 4. Chalybeate, containing Iron. 5. Purgative. 6. Limestone or Calcareous. 7. Thermal, ...

Morphia.: It is not necessary to have morphia in the family medicine chest; laudanum and paregoric will do for opiates under almost all circumstances.

Musk.: A very strongly odorous substance, secreted by the musk-deer of the Himalaya Mountain region, in Asia. It is antispasmodic, that is, composing to disturbed ...

Mustard-Plaster.: One of the most frequently useful of all domestic remedies. When anybody is suffering pain, or, indeed, illness of any kind if you do not know what to do, put ...

Myrrh.: A gum-resin long known for its aromatic properties. Internally given, it is stimulant and tonic, and is an ingredient in some preparations intended to act upon ...

Nitre.: A name for saltpetre; called by chemists nitrate of potassium. It is a cooling, sedative salt, when taken internally. In ten-grain doses it is a useful ...

Nux Vomica.: A poisonous seed or nut whose active principle is the alkaloid strychnia. It is best used in extract or tincture. Both are bitter tonics, with a powerful ...

Olive Oil.: Probably the gentlest of all laxatives; in teaspoonful to tablespoonful doses. For a delicate infant, needing to have the bowels acted upon, a teaspoonful is ...

Opium.: If all the medicines in the world were to be destroyed, except three, and we could choose the three, they should be quinine, opium and iron. The first cures ...

Pepper.: Of the two kinds used with food, red pepper {capsicum) is the more stimulating. It is sometimes given by physicians as a stimulant, in five-grain pills. A much ...

Peppermint.: Essence of peppermint is a pleasant, warm aromatic; given as good for colic and sick stomach. Dose, ten drops for a grown person; for an infant, from two drops ...

Pepsin.: Hard to get pure. Given for weak digestion. Dose, 5 grains.

Permanganate of Potassium.: This salt, which gives a beautiful red color to water, has a remarkable action on all organic (animal or vegetable) matter. It is one of the best disinfectants.

Phosphorus.: Too dangerous for use as a domestic medicine, this is sometimes given by physicians as a powerful nerve-stimulant. Dose, one-thirtieth of a grain. Phosphates ...

Pink-Root.: This American plant (Spigelia Marylandica) is a very good medicine for worms (vermifuge). It may be made into a a tea thus: Put together half an ounce of ...

Podophyllin, or Resina Podophylli: This is an active principle obtained from the root of the common May-apple (podophyllum peltatum). The powdered root itself may be taken in doses of ten to ...

Potassa (Potash).: Solution of potassa is sometimes given as a medicine by physicians. Caustic potassa (vegetable caustic) is the solid stick, which, with care, may be used to ...

Poultices.: These are used to warm and soften the skin, when applied to inflamed parts of the surface of the body; particularly when a gathering (suppuration, abscess) is ...

Pumpkin Seeds.: These have a deserved reputation, as capable of driving a tapeworm out of the bowels. For such use, an ounce (about two tablespoonfuls) of the fresh seeds ...

Quassia.: A bitter wood which is a good, simple stomachic tonic, suitable for dyspepsia. It is best taken in the form of a tea. Half an ounce of it may be boiled for an ...

Quinine.: What is commonly so called and used in medicine is the sulphate of quinia. The alkaloid quinia is the most valuable of several obtained from Peruvian bark; ...

Rhatany.: This is the root of krameria, a South American shrub. It is astringent; its tincture is the best preparation. Dose, a teaspoonful, in water. Used especially ...

Rhubarb.: The root of an Asiatic and European plant, is a gentle purgative, with also some tonic property, which makes it especially adapted to dyspeptic persons, and ...

Santonin.: One of the most effectual vermifuges; that is, medicines which either kill or drive out worms. It must be used with care, as excessive doses are violent in ...

Sassafras Pith.: A very soft material, which gives a soothing (demulcent) proerty to water in which it is placed. It is often used in this way for inflammation of the eyes.

Seidlitz Powders.: Made by mixing bicarbonate of sodium, and tartrate of potassium and sodium (rochelle salt), in powder together, for one paper. For another paper, tartaric acid ...

Senna.: The leaves of an Eastern plant; an active purgative, with a disposition to give some griping pain in its operation. This may be prevented by adding fennel seed ...

Soap.: Castile soap is the kind preferred when nicety is particularly desired. This is used by some people to clean their teeth. It is an ingredient, also, in some ...

Soap Liniment.: Camphorated tincture of soap. An excellent bathing material, so-called; that is, for rubbing a part, to warm and stimulate the movement of blood at and near ...

Soda.: Bicarbonate of sodium is the chemical name of the article which is used in baking and washing, as well as in medicine. It is an excellent and not disagreeable ...

Spice-Plasters.: When a child's stomach is sick, or it is obstinately colicky, one of the most helpful things is a spice-plaster. Take of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, all ...

Squills.: The bulb of an onion-like plant, of which the syrup is most used. It is an excellent cough-medicine (expectorant): rather less loosening than ipecac, and ...

Staphysagria.: Stavesacre. A drug used in powder as an effective parasiticide; especially to destroy the eggs or nits of lice. Sulphide of Calcium, in quarter-grain doses or ...

Sulphur: This is a mild and good laxative; particularly suitable for piles, and for those persons who are often troubled with colic. Dose, a teaspoonful; in molasses or ...

Tannin or Tannic Acid: This is the astringent principle of oak bark, of nut galls, and of many other vegetable materials. Its presence in tea-leaves accounts for iron spoons being ...

Tar.: An old-time remedy for chronic bronchial trouble; especially likely to do good by inhalation. A tin cup containing tar may be kept over a slow flame, in the ...

Taraxacum.: Everybody knows the dan delion plant. Taraxacum dens leonis is its botanical name. The leaves are liked by some people as a kind of greens for the table. The ...

Tarrant's Powders.: A moderately active and not unpleasant cooling purgative. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful, according to the amount of effect desired.

Tartar Emetic.: A very harsh drug in its effects upon the human body, unless it be given in very small doses. Other emetics are always to be preferred when vomiting is to be ...

Turpentine, Oil or Spirit of.: Used occasionally by physicians as a medicine internally, in ten-drop doses, in typhoid fever (as an alternative to the diseased bowel) and in chronic ...

Valerian.: The root of an herb native to the Old World, of which the tincture and fluid extract are most used. It is a mild nervous stimulant and antispasmodic (composing ...

Vichy Water.: An alkaline (antacid) mineral water of France, more agreeable because of its containing some free carbonic acid gas. It is recommended for dyspepsia with sour ...

Warner's Cordial.: Tincture of Rhubarb and Senna this is, by composition. It is a warming, stimulating laxative to the bowels; good in gouty cases, and many others. Dose, one or ...

Wild Cherry Bark.: One of our native American medicines, of real value. Like the fruit and leaves of the wild cherry tree, and like peach leaves and fruit-stones, this bark ...

Doses Of Principal Medicines: Acetate of Ammonium Solution..... 1 Tablespoonful. Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia...... 10 to 30 Drops. Assafoetida, in Pill........... 3 to 5 Grains. Assafoetida, ...

Largest Safe Doses of Poisonous Drugs.: Every person should know the largest doses, which is safe to take, of active medicines. The following table shows the largest doses admissible, in grammes, and ...

For the Medicine Chest.: The following household remedies are suggested for the family medicine chest: Medicine Chest. Castor-Oil, Essence of Ginger, Spiced Syrup of Rhubarb, Simple ...

Nursing And Care Of The Sick: In many kinds of illness, especially continued fevers, and other attacks attended by great debility, good nursing is well known to be as important as good ...

Qualities of a Good Nurse.: Exactness in carrying out the orders of the physician is the first duty of a nurse. The doctor is responsible for the treatment of the case, and the patient ...

The Sick-Room.: When it is possible to choose, the patient's room should be on the sunny side of the house, and on the second floor. It should be one of the largest in the ...

Warmth.: A sick-room should, generally, be kept at a temperature between 68 and 700 Fahr. In a few exceptional cases, physicians may wish to have a room much warmer, at ...

Light.: While the sunny side of the house is the best, and sunlight should be admitted (with few exceptions only) every day into the room, the sick person's eyes ...

Air.: In the sick-room the things to be done are, to have the air changed constantly, and at the same time to prevent direct draughts upon the patient's bed. If ...

The Sick-Bed.: Select a wide and rather low bedstead, for ease in getting in and out; a wire bed-bottom; next best to it, one on good springs, with a thick but soft mattress.

Sick-Garments.: These should be as simple as possible. One sufficiently warm and long night-shirt or night-gown will, as a rule, be enough; the less worn, the easier it will ...

Washing and Bathing.: Every morning, at least, a sick person's face should be freshened up by washing, in whatever manner his strength best allows. One really ill must have it done ...

Food For The Sick: Appetite almost disappears in severe illness, especially when there is fever, and the capacity to digest food is then nearly lost. It is best not to give large ...

Beef-Tea.: Chop a pound of good lean round of beaf into very small pieces. Pour over it a pint, or less (never more) of cold water. Cover it, and let it stand for two ...

Beef Essence.: Cut up a pound of good lean beaf into small pieces, and put it into a pint bottle (or other handy receptacle), without any water. Cork the bottle loosely and ...

Broiled Beef Juice.: Broil a pound of lean beef. Cut it into strips, and press out the juice with a lemon-squeezer or meat-press. A pound of meat will give about three ...

Raw-Beef Extract.: Cut up good lean beef very fine, and put a pound of it with half a pint of cold water in a bottle. Let it soak for about twelve hours, shaking it well half a ...

Raw-Beef Scrapings.: Take a piece of good tender beef, and, with a rather dull knife, scrape off all of it that will come, leaving the tough, gristly portions behind. The pasty ...

Chicken Broth: Clean half a chicken and remove the skin. Pour on it a quart of cold water, and salt to taste. Add a table-spoonful of Carolina rice, and boil slowly for two ...

Gruels.: Oatmeal Gruel. Boil a pint of water, and while boiling, mix with it two table-spoonfuls of (Canada, Bethlehem, or Ohio) oatmeal, which has been first rubbed ...

Farina Gruel.: Mix two tablespoonfuls of farina with a quart of water, and let it boil long enough to become thick. Add a pint of milk and a little salt, and then boil again ...

Barley, Rice, Toast Waters: Barley Water. Wash well two ounces of pearl barley with cold water, throwing that water away. Put the barley into a pint and a half of fresh cold water, bring ...

Soups: Bread-and-Butter Soup. Spread a slice of well-baked bread with good fresh butter, and sprinkle it moderately with salt and black pepper. Pour a pint of boiling ...

Panada.: Cut two slices of stale bread, without crust. Toast them brown, cut them up into squares about two inches across, lay them in a bowl, and sprinkle with salt ...

Boiled Flour.: Tie up a quart of wheat flour in a pudding-bag, tightly. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and keep this boiling for several hours (all day or all night will ...

Arrow-Root.: Mix a tablespoonful or rather more with a little cold water, till it becomes smooth and pasty. Boil a pint of water, stir in the arrow-root, and boil it for a ...

Jellies: Tapioca. Cover two tablespoonfuls of tapioca with a full teacupful of cold water, and let it soak for several hours. Put it then into a pint of boiling water, ...

Rice Milk.: Boil a tablespoonful of rice for an hour and a half in a pint of fresh milk, then rub it through a fine sieve. Add a tablespoonful of fine (granulated) white ...

Oatmeal with Beef-Tea.: Mix a tablespoonful of oatmeal quite smoothly with two tablespoonfuls of cold water. Add this to a pint of strong beef-tea, and heat to the boiling-point, ...

Imitation of Mother's Milk.: Obtain from a druggist packages of pure milk-sugar containing, each, seventeen and three-quarter drachms. Dissolve one package in a pint of hot water. Mix ...

Egg Broth.: Mix two ounces of pearl sago in half a pint of cold water, and let it stand half an hour. Then boil it until it becomes smooth and sufficiently thick. Beat the ...

Egg with Wine.: Beat up a raw fresh egg, and stir with it one or two tablespoonfuls of sherry wine. This, as well as the preparations that next follow, is only suitable where ...

Caudle.: Beat up a raw fresh egg with a wineglassful of sherry wine, and add it to a half pint of hot oatmeal, Indian meal, or farina gruel. Flavor with lemon-peel, ...

Wine Whey.: Boil half a pint of milk, and while boiling add half a glass or a glass of sherry or Madeira wine. Strain off the curd through muslin or a sieve. Sweeten the ...

Milk Punch.: Into a tumblerful of milk put one or two tablespoonfuls of whiskey, brandy, or rum. Sweeten, and grate nutmeg upon it. In some very low states of the system, ...

Koumiss.: This mildly stimulant and somewhat nourishing Tartar and Russian drink is made by fermenting mare's milk. It may be quite well imitated, however, by adding to ...

Roast Oysters.: Convalescents can sometimes relish and digest these sooner than any other solid food. Place a dozen fresh oysters in the shell upon a moderately strong fire, ...

To Keep Ice for the Sick.: Cut a piece of clean flannel about eight inches square. Put this (after making a small hole in the centre) over the top of a glass tumbler, pressing the ...

Flour Food for Infants.: Let from five to ten pounds of selected wheat flour be packed in a bag so as to form a ball, tied with a strong cord, and boiled with the water constantly ...

Giving Medicines.: No one who cannot read should pour out a dose of medicine. Bottles containing poisonous drugs should be labeled poison, and such should, when practicable, be ...

Accidents And Injuries: In all cases of accidents coolness and presence of mind are of the utmost consequence. Danger is increased by alarm and confusion. One who has his senses about ...

Burns and Scalds.: Burns are caused by dry heat, or by something else than water; scalds by boiling water, steam, or other hot fluids. The danger to life of either is in ...

Applications for Burns.: For the burn or scald itself, there is no better application than lime water and oil (flaxseed, olive, or lard oil) mixed together in equal parts. Lint, if it ...

Choking; Strangling.: These are not the same in causation; but the danger is in both the same stoppage of breathing by an obstruction in the windpipe. In choking, properly so called, ...

Drowning.: One whole minute under water will, except with a few practised divers, end life in a human being. Still, by active means, those longer immersed, as much as ...

Foreign Bodies in Ear.: So disagreeable is the odor of the natural ear-wax, and so sticky is it to insect's feet and the bodies of grubs or worms, that they very seldom find their way ...

Foreign Bodies in Eye.: Small particles, of sand, dust, cinders, from a locomotive, etc., often get under the upper or lower eyelid; most frequently the latter. If the particle be ...

Fainting.: One who faints, falls, unless held up, as when standing or sitting up in a crowded place. But not every fall is fainting. It may be an epileptic fit; but then ...

Fractures.: Broken Bones. Most frequently broken is the radius; the thumb-side bone of the forearm, which is most closely connected with the hand. We may break it by ...

Joints, Sprained.: Any of the joints may be wrenched or sprained, without actual displacement. This happens often with the ankle, knee, wrist, elbow, fingers, etc. The ligaments ...

Nail, Splinter under.: To get out a splinter which is beneath the nail, pare the nail carefully, over the splinter, making a narrow groove, until its upper end is exposed. Then, with ...

Needle penetration.: A needle gives almost no pain in entering the flesh anywhere; and it may slip about and be pushed by the muscles in various directions, so as to come near or ...

Nose, Foreign Bodies in.: Children now and then push peas, small marbles, etc., into their own or one another's noses. If the intruding thing be not very large, blowing the nose very ...

Wounds.: These may be either Bruised Crushed, Cut, Lacerated (torn), Penetrating or Poisoned wounds. Bruises are familiar to everybody. If the blow or fall has been of ...

Lacerated wounds: Lacerated wounds are those which are torn; as by machinery, or bites of dogs, horses, or other beasts, etc. They are irregular in shape, seldom bleed much, but ...

Poisoned wounds: These are seldom met with, even in war, amongst civilized nations, except by unintended causation. This may happen especially to physicians and surgeons, in ...

Poisons And Their Antidotes: Poisons are of several kinds: Animal, as snake-venoms and cantharides; Vegetable, as opium, strychnia, tobacco; Mineral, as arsenic and corrosive sublimate.

Aconite (as poison).: All parts of this plant (Monkshood, Aconiturn napellus) are poisonous The only form in which any one is likely to take it injuriously is that of the Tincture ...

Ammonia (as poison).: This is the volatile alkali. It has the same chemical relations as the fixed alkalies, potassa, soda, and lithia; but flies off into the air when exposed, ...

Arsenic (as poison).: Both by accident and through suicidal or murderous intent, this is one of the most frequently fatal poisons. Symptoms of arsenical poisoning are complex. It is ...

Carbolic Acid (as poison).: This is also called phenol. It is to coal-oil (petroleum) what creosote is to tar from wood. Symptoms of poisoning by either carbolic acid, kerosene, or crude ...

Chloral.: Hydrate of chloral is the right name of this medicine, which is much used, especially to promote sleep. It is very uncertain in its action upon different ...

Chloroform (as poison).: This liquid is much used in Europe, but less than ether in this country, as an anaesthetic, by being breathed to annul the pain of surgical operations. It is ...

Copper.: While this metal, when pure, is not itself poisonous, its compounds are; and they are produced by the action on copper of the fluids of the stomach, or by ...

Corrosive Sublimate.: This, the chloride of mercury, is a deadly poison; three or four grains of it may kill a man. Symptoms of its action are, in a marked degree, those of the ...

Fungi.: Mushrooms and Truffles belong to this group of plants; both being largely eaten, and agreeing with most persons. Botanists inform us that there are many ...

Lead.: While metallic lead is not poisonous, many of its compounds are so. The one most nearly inert is the sulphate of lead. Hence sulphuric acid, and its salts, as ...

Opium (as poison).: Symptoms of any kind of opiate poisoning are: in not very excessive dose, at first a short period of excitement; in overwhelming dose, this is absent and the ...

Phosphorus (as poison).: This substance, a small portion of which is always naturally present in our brains and in our bones, is, when in the separate state, a most destructive poison.

Infancy and Childhood. Nourishment: Every mother should, if she can, nourish her own child, from her own breast. This is nature's law, as well as the law of love. Some mothers, unfortunately, ...

Weaning.: This never should be sudden, if it can be helped. If a mother can nurse her infant a full year, it will be well; if eighteen months, still better. When she has, ...

Bottle-feeding.: The bottle is vastly-better than the spoon. It imitates nature better; it allows the food to go more slowly into the stomach; and it gives the infant desirable ...

Milk.: Cow's milk is almost the only kind used in this country for infants; here and there, goat's milk may be had. Cow's milk is stronger in solid contents than ...

What May be Used with Milk: Simple articles, especially barley, rice, and oatmeal, are commonly available for this purpose. Either of them does best when ground (or beaten in a mortar) to ...

Clothing for Infants.: Let the clothing of infants, from birth, be warm enough and loose enough for comfort. No tight bands should ever be put on them. Some parent*, in over-anxiety ...

Infants Bathing.: A new-born child should be bathed only in warm water, in a warm room. From 950 to 900 should be the temperature of its bath; the thermometer had better be used, ...

Infants Exercise.: After the first few months, a babe should be allowed and encouraged to sprawl; first on a wide bed, being watched that it does not fall off; afterwards on a ...

Sleep for Children.: For the first month or two, an infant naturally sleeps more than half its time. All through the first year, many babies sleep from twelve to sixteen hours in ...

Teething.: Mothers and nurses ought to know what to look for in their babies' mouths, as the months follow each other in their first two years. Only twenty teeth, be it ...

Why Babies Cry.: A word here about babies' crying. A healthy child, not teething, if well taken care of, will very seldom cry. If it becomes very hungry, and is not nourished, ...

What is Teething: Teething is not a disease, a morbid process, at all. But it is an important change, which for the time renders the child more than before or after liable to ...

Summer Dangers.: In our American cities, hot weather kills more young children than any other cause. Look at the weekly record of deaths in New York or Philadelphia, and you ...

Rules for Management of Infants.: Rule 1. Bathe the child once a day in tepid water. If it is feeble, sponge it all over once a day with tepid water, or with tepid water and vinegar. The health ...

Rules for Diet of Infants.: Rule 6. Breast-milk is the only proper food for infants. If the supply is ample, and the child thrives on it, no other kind of food should be given while the ...

Weaning the Infant.: Rule 10. The nursing-bottle must be kept perfectly clean; otherwise the milk will turn sour, and the child will be made ill. After each meal it should be ...

The Laws Of Hygiene: How to Keep Well.: In the pages over which we have passed, our effort has been, as the reader will perceive, to describe the various ailments with which man is afflicted and the ...

The Laws Of Hygiene: Impure Air.: The air which we breathe is rarely quite pure, and is often very impure. This is especially the case in city life and within our houses. Pure air is only to be ...

Respiration.: The effect upon most people of breathing over-respired air is to cause heaviness, sleepiness, headache, giddiness, fainting, and sometimes vomiting. When the ...

Diseases Due to Impure Water.: Water is another fertile source of disease, many organic and inorganic impurities making their way into it. It is to the former that its unhealthfulness is ...

Purification of Water.: Fortunately, it is comparatively easy to destroy the injurious organic impurities of water and render it wholesome for drinking purposes. This, it is true, ...

Diseases Due to Food: Food may in various ways give rise to disease. Over-eating is one source of injury to the system. Part of the food is not absorbed, and may become putrid in ...

Scurvy.: One of the best-known diseases caused by the absence of some essential of a diet is called scurvy. This used to be very common on board ships on long voyages, ...

Diseases Due to Food Eaten when it has Become Putrid.: It is a curious fact which we cannot explain that some food, such as ripe cheese, game, and high mutton is only eaten in a state of decomposition, and yet no ...

Food Diseased in Itself.: Diseased animals not unfrequently communicate their diseases to man. Thus so called measly cattle and pigs contain in the flesh or muscles innumerable small ...

Good Food Conveying Germs.: This is most frequent in the case of milk, where it has been found that whole districts supplied by one milk farm have been affected with some disease, such as ...

Alcohol and Tobacco.: Alcohol is not required by the body, and, as a rule, to which there are few exceptions, people are much better and healthier without it; for instance, it has ...

Infectious Diseases.: Diseases which may be communicated from one person to another, or from an animal to a man, are known as infectious diseases. Some of these, such as itch, lice, ...

Animal Parasites.: The commonest attacking the external parts, such as fleas, bugs, lice, and mosquitoes, are generally well known. They cause much irritation, with small lumps ...

Vegetable Parasites.: These are all very minute, and only visible by the microscope, and their presence on or in the body is only judged from the diseases which they set up. They ...

How Germs are Conveyed and Received.: Germs may be carried from one person to another, and received by that person in different ways. They may be conveyed by actual contact, as in the case of ...

Why Children Should not be Purposely Exposed to Infectious Fevers: It is the custom with some ignorant mothers to purposely expose their children to mild cases of fever, especially measles, chicken-pox, and scarlatina, because ...

Disinfectants.: This word should only be used to indicate some process or chemical agent which will absolutely kill germs and spores. It is, however, unfortunately applied to ...

Contagious Diseases.: The following points will help to determine the nature of a suspicious illness: Disease Rash or Eruption Appearance Duration in Days Remarks Chicken-pox Small ...

How to Avoid Disease.: There are various ways in which disease may be avoided. One is not to expose ourselves to contagion or injurious influences. We need to be careful of the food ...

Muscular Exercise.: Exercise of all parts of the body is an absolute necessity for the maintenance of perfect health. If a steam-engine is allowed to stand idle it will soon rust ...

Modes of Exercise.: Walking is excellent; unsurpassed in benefit to the system if one can afford time to get enough of it; a pleasant country, moderate weather, and good company ...

Healthy Breathing.: Little thought is needed, for every one to see that for good breathing there must be sound lungs and air tubes, and strength in the muscles of the chest, as ...

Personal Cleanliness.: The importance of cleanliness in all the actions of life is almost too apparent to need mention, were it not that it is so much neglected by many. Not only ...

Clothing.: Clothing, to promote health, should be: sufficient for comfortable warmth; not excessive in quantity or pressure; properly distributed over the body; suited to ...

Kind of Clothing.: We should adapt the amount and quality of our clothing to the weather. Not by the almanac, however, as the seasons do not follow it exactly. Chinese people, it ...

How to Live Long.: As a brief summary statement of the most essential conditions of health and longevity, we may conclude our study of Hygiene with the following precepts: 1.

Value Of Vegetable And Animal Food: No subject is of more vital importance to the care of health than that of food. Hence a knowledge of the value of various food products is indispensable to ...

Bread.: Time out of mind the staff of life, was made of brayed grain by our ancient forefathers before they left Western Asia. Bread contains nitrogenous and non- ...

Vegetables.: Peas and Beans are highly nitrogenous, besides containing a great deal of starch. But that their share of salts, especially phosphates, is less, and that they ...

Fruits.: As a rule, fresh fruits are wholesome. They promote the natural action of the bowels, and are refreshing and antiscorbutic. When the bowels are disordered, as ...

Eggs.: There is excellent nourishment, mostly albuminoid, but with a small amount of fat (in the yolk) in eggs. There is, of course, no truth in the popular saying, ...

Meats. part 1: All parts of the Animal Kingdom furnish food for men in some quarters of the earth. Vertebrates are represented abundantly; in mammals (as the ox and sheep), ...

Meats. part 2: Birds have weaker, less nitrogenous meat than mammals, but generally more tender and delicate. Most digestible of domestic birds are the turkey, chicken, and ...

TimeTable for the Housekeeper.: Time Table for the Housekeeper * Minutes to the pound. + Mutton Soup. The time given is the general average; the time will vary slightly with the quality of ...

The Homeopathic Treatment: The homeopathic treatment given in this book is by a homeopathic physician of over forty years' active experience. He is a member of the American Institute of ...

Abortions.: To avoid them there should be no active mental excitement. The use or smell of turpentine, even in paint, is very dangerous. If threatened from fright, Aconite ...

Abscess.: If for any threatened abscess and pain, Belladonna; then give Hypo-phosphite of lime first decimal trituration. If suppuration is feared give Hepar sul.; as ...

Acne: Flesh-Worms Blackheads Comedones. This is a skin-disease, occurring about the face and chest of young people, and very disfiguring in appearance; it is ...

After-Pains.: They are rarely troublesome after a first confinement, but are apt to increase in severity at each succeeding one. After-pains are, in moderation, salutary, ...

Ague.: To stop chills, give a cup of hot coffee, no sugar, no milk, and the juice of a lemon added. Drink when the chill is beginning. It is better than the highly ...

Alcoholism and Its Treatment: The results of the abuse of alcohol upon the system are caused both by its immediate local action upon the stomach, and its remote effects upon the various ...

Alopecia: Falling of the Hair Baldness. Falling of the hair occurs normally in advanced age, and is then accompanied by wasting of the hair-follicles, and is not ...

Anæmia: Lack of Blood. This term is applied to a condition in which there is deficiency of the red-blood globules, and consequently a thin and pale state of the blood.

Angina Pectoris, or Spasm of the Heart: Angina Pectoris, or Spasm of the Heart, is one of the most formidable and painful of the affections which terminate human life. It occurs more generally after ...

Aphonia—Loss of Voice—Hoarseness: Loss of voice may be owing to inflammatory swelling, either acute or chronic, or to ulceration of the lining membrane of the larynx to paralysis, or to ...

Aphthæ or Trush.: Thrush is more especially a disease of early infancy, affecting the mouth and throat, the lining membrane of which, in this disease, appears as if sprinkled ...

Asthma: Asthma is an affection of the chest, characterized by distressing inability of the person suffering from it to inspire sufficient air to fill the lungs. The ...

Bandaging.: Many times a plaster of adhesive or sticking plaster, rightly put on, a best; for it will keep in position, and stay a long time.

Bilious Diseases.: For vomiting of bitter bile, Nux Vomica, a dose once in fifteen or thirty minutes till relieved, and especially if it is caused by unripe fruit. Pulsatilla, if ...

Diseases of the Bladder.: Many of the diseases and disorders of the bladder are brought on by carelessness, neglect, or too great subservience to the conventional restraints of society; ...

Breast. Inflammation and Abscess of the Breast: The disease from which the female breast most frequently suffers is inflammation , followed by abscess. This may occur at any time, but most commonly it is ...

Bronchitis: Bronchitis is inflammation of the membrane, lining the air-tubes, or bronchi. In its subacute and chronic forms it is one of the most common diseases, ...

Bronchocele—Goitre: Bronchocele Goitre. These names are given to a swelling in the neck, caused by an enlargement of the thyroid gland, situated in front of the windpipe. The ...

Burns.: Cover thick with lather made of Castile soap. If it cracks, cover them with same and let it remain till it is healed. Cancrum Oris is a species of ...

Carbuncle.: It should be treated kindly and never cut, but apply hot fomentations, cloths wet with hot water, and tincture of Myrrh should be added. If unable to prevent ...

Catarrh.: This being the most prevalent disease known, it requires a large number of remedies to combat it successfully. At the beginning, ordinary remedies for a cold ...

Chilblains.: A chilblain is an inflammatory affection of the skin, more particularly of the fingers or toes caused by alternations of cold and heat, and is characterized ...

Cholera, Asiatic or Malignant.: Symptoms The violence of its symptoms, and the fearful rapidity with which it often terminates life, render cholera one of our most alarming diseases.

Colic: Colic is the painful spasmodic contraction of the muscular fibers of the bowels, occasioned by the presence of an undue amount of wind, or of some irritating ...

Constipation.: For a general constipated habit, Nux vomica at night, Sulphur in the morning. Bryonia, for large feces; Nux vomica, small balls; Opium, small dark balls.

Convulsions.: Convulsions may be either general or partial, affecting only the muscles of the eyes or eyelids, of the face, or of one of the extremities, or of one side of ...

Croup: Croup is an inflammatory affection of the larynx and upper portions of the air-passages. It is peculiar to children males are more liable to it than females ...

Diarrhea: Antimonium crudum, disordered stomach, tongue coated white, bitter vomiting, worse after eating or drinking. Arsenicum, watery, burning discharges, worse about ...

Dislocations.: It is necessary to speak of only one dislocation, and that is, the backward dislocation of the thumb, which is considered and given in the books as one of the ...

Dysentery.: Cantharis, for painful bloody discharges with painful urination. Colocynth, yellow, frothy or bloody stools with severe colicky pains, causing the patient to ...

Headaches.: Avena, pain in back of head and neck. Belladonna, beating, throbbing headache, worse lying down, red face. Bryonia, head painful and sore, worse on moving.

Heart.: Digitalis is the remedy most frequently used for weak heart action, but has to be given in large doses of the fluid extract, and that is quite apt to produce ...

Hemorrhages.: Hemorrhages may be arterial or venous. If arterial, the blood will be bright, and comes in jets or spurts, while venous blood is dark and oozes constantly. The ...

Indigestions: Nux vomica, where food distresses, bowels constipated, dull, frontal headache. Dioscorea for chronic indigestion with constipation, pain in bowels. Pulsatilla, ...

Lumbago.: Berberis vulgaris is the best remedy for general lame back. Belladonna, for simple aching. Bryonia, lameness, worse moving. Rhus tox., better by continual ...

Measles.: Measles is one of the eruptive fevers, which most persons go through once in a lifetime, and generally during childhood; the disease usually occurs as an ...

Menses.: Aconite, feverish, nervous, severe, dull cramping pain in bowels and pain in back; she has to bend double. Stoppage of flow. Belladonna, violent throbbing ...

Mumps.: A contagious epidemic disease, which consists of inflammation of the salivary parotid glands, situated on either side of the lower jaw. It commences with more ...

Neuralgia.: This is perhaps one of the most painful affections to which the human body is liable. In most instances the pain is the only symptom; in some it is accompanied ...

Palpitation of the Heart.: If it appears occasionally, it is doubtless occasioned by some disturbance of the stomach or liver, and the treatment should be directed to the offending organ.

Piles, or Hemorrhoids: Piles, or Hemorrhoids, are tumors which form at the verge of the anus or fundament, and may be situated either within or without the bowel: they are either ...

Pleurisy.: This is an inflammation of the pleura, or serous membrane which covers the lungs and lines the greater part of the cavity of the chest. Causes. Exposure to wet ...

Pneumonia.: Symptoms. This is an inflammation of the proper substance of the lungs. The disease generally announces itself with a chill or chilly feeling, which lasts from ...

Quinsy Sore Throat.: Belladonna at first. If that, with cold water compress on outside, does not abort it, give Hepar sul., and poultice with hot boiled potatoes.

Rheumatism.: Under this well-known name are comprehended two forms of disease, differing greatly from each other so greatly, indeed, as to be distinguished even by the ...

Rickets: Rickets is a disease in which the bones lose their earthy constituents, and consequently their natural hardness, becoming soft like gristle, and somewhat ...

Saint Vitus's Dance: Saint Vitus's Dance, known to medical men by the name of Chorea,' is a disease strongly indicative of nervous disorder; its precise nature, however, is at ...

Scarlatina and Scarlet Fever.: Scarlet fever belongs to the class of eruptive fevers, and is characterized by symptoms so well marked that it can scarcely be mistaken for any other disease, ...

Typhoid Fever.: Probably no other disease has been as unskillfully and unsuccessfully treated as typhoid fever. A number of years ago a professor in Harvard Medical School ...

Worms and Wounds: Worms. Calcarea carb. Cina., pin-worms. Ratanhia is a specific. Wounds. For cut wounds Calendula (from marigold flowers) is the best application, and a wash of ...

Headaches Begone! A Systemic Approach To Healing Your Headaches

Don't Let Your Bike Seat Ruin Your Sex Life Book

Household Companion: The Family Doctor

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