CLOTHES ON FIRE.
Accidents from fire are very likely to cause a panic, but possibly you may by effort so cultivate coolness and presence of mind, as to act wisely and deliberately even then, even if your own clothes are on fire. If you are able to think at all, the question will be if there is water within reach that can be used to extinguish it immediately; if there is not, how can it be smothered? Possibly the burning portion can be enveloped in that part of the dress that is not burned; or a rug may be within reach, or some woolen thing that may be used to stifle it, without pressing it against the person’s flesh. But very probably the best that the person can do is to lie down on the floor and roll on the carpet. If you see another woman on fire, do not scream or run away; grasp her clothes all together, if you can without pressing the fire against her person; or if you can immediately put out the fire by catching up a rug or some heavy woolen thing and enveloping her in it, do so. Remember at the same time to avoid inhaling much of the flames or setting fire to your own clothes.
Burns and Scalds. There are various modes of treating burns, but one good general rule is that the dressings should be so applied as to exclude the air. If the skin is not destroyed or removed, either the bicarbonate of soda may be applied dry, or in a strong solution; or wheat flour may be applied dry, and the burn covered with a thick layer of cotton batting; or the white of egg may be spread over it, and another layer put on as soon as one dries, until some six or eight layers are applied. If the skin is abraded either olive oil or vaseline or carbolated cosmoline applied and covered with cotton or wool is a good dressing. (F. 187, 214.)
Burns produced by strong acids should be first bathed with some alkaline solution such as soda or ammonia; on the contrary if lime or caustic potash cause the injury, neutralize the alkali by applying acid diluted; a teaspoonful of vinegar or lemon juice in a teacupful of water would suffice.
If a BAD SCALD is occasioned by a child falling backward in the water, carefully undress the child; lay it on a bed on its breast if the burn is on its back; then dust over the parts with bicarbonate of soda; lay muslin or cotton wool over it, and so arrange the bed by means of two boxes and a board that the covering cannot press on the scald.
If a FRAGMENT OF LIME GETS INTO THE EYE, bathe it immediately with a weak solution of vinegar or lemon juice.
If something like dust or dirt gets in the eye, it may be cleaned out by taking hold of the eye lash and pulling the upper lid down, and forcibly blowing the nose. You may sometimes wipe the dirt from the eye with a soft handkerchief. Always wipe the eye towards the nose.
When something like a PEA or CHERRY PIT IS IN THE NOSTRIL direct the patient to draw in a full breath, then close the mouth and the other nostril and try to blow the offending object out. If he fails you can probably remove it by means of a hair-pin; or while the other nostril is closed, blow forcibly into the mouth and dislodge the object.
Remove insects from the ear by oil or tepid water. A little oil or glycerine may first be dropped into the ear; and then it may be syringed with warm or tepid water, taking care not to close the opening with the nozzle of the syringe. This may be tried if the substance in the ear is hard.
If a child is choked let it get on all fours and cough. Anything stuck or lodged in the throat may sometimes be worked out with a hair-pin or bent wire.
If a CROCHET NEEDLE’S HOOKED POINT IS IN THE FLESH make certain on which side the hook is, then put an ivory bodkin or any similar article down to the hook, and draw both out together.
If a FINGER OR THUMB IS CUT in two, without any crushing of the parts, the severed portion should be immediately applied to its place; if the cut is clean, the hewn off part may be made to unite, possibly if it has been off for two hours. The wound should be washed with carbolic solution if that is immediately procurable, and the severed parts should be accurately fixed by sutures (stitches) in their normal position, and a splint applied.
Life is sometimes destroyed suddenly by persons drinking a large quantity of cold water when greatly fatigued. To avoid all danger in these cases, a small quantity should be sipped at a time; and washing the face, hands and temples before drinking is a good precaution. But if by drinking cold water the system is severely chilled so that prostration takes place, endeavor to secure warmth by giving a teaspoonful paregoric, and rubbing the hands and body briskly; and if the patient can be brought sufficiently to his senses he should be made to drink enough warm water to induce vomiting; this excites circulation and perspiration, and determines towards the surface. Warm applications should be made to the feet and to the region of the stomach, and the body should be warmed as soon as possible.
CHAPTER III.
SLIGHT HURTS AND AILMENTS.
There are a hundred little accidents liable to occur in a household which a very little surgical skill would suffice to set right.
Besides medicines, there are several handy articles which should be always kept ready in a clean drawer, should an emergency arise that demands their use. Have a little case containing a lancet, scissors, pins, needles and thread; have also one or two bandages, some lint and oiled silk, a bit of lunar caustic (nitrate silver), and some strips of adhesive plaster, a stimulant lotion, an eye lotion, a liniment, and one or two kinds of ointment.
Use the lancet to open small abscesses or gum boils; the pins are handy for fastening bandages, &c., and should be of different sizes; the thread should be strong and white; the needles of fair size, with good large eyes; charpie may take the place of lint; it is made by scraping old linen; it is often useful; for instance, to heal old sores, dip LINT or CHARPIE in clean, cold water, to which a few drops of carbolic acid has been added; then apply it to the sore, which it must more than cover; then apply oiled silk and a retaining bandage. The lint may be used for water dressings to wounds, and these may take the place of poultices in treating swellings which we wish to reduce or soothe.
Keep the best ADHESIVE PLASTER procurable; and it ought to be cut up into different breadths. When it is necessary to use this plaster, see that the wound is perfectly clean, and apply long narrow slips. Warm the plaster by holding it against a can of boiling water for a few seconds, then apply it across the wound. In case of scalp wounds the hair must be cut off before the plaster is applied.
In a case of fractured ribs, strapping should be applied to the injured side.
Lunar caustic is used to cauterize dog, or cat, or skunk bites that are supposed to be POISONOUS.
An excellent LOTION for HEADACHE and other pain is made of a quart of water, a teacupful of common salt, one ounce of hartshorn, and a half ounce of spirits of camphor; mix and keep in a bottle tightly corked; saturate a cloth and apply to seat of pain.
That form of conjunctivitis (sore eyes), which occurs in new-born infants, is in the vast majority of cases, easily removed by lukewarm water, or by such simple astringents as alum and borax. (F. 193, 215, may be properly kept in the house for ordinary sore eyes.) Of course severe cases require skilled treatment, but in all ordinary cases careful wiping away of the secretion, the use of the alum solution, and the greasing of the skin to avoid excoriations, are in order. For œdematous inflammation with little purulent or mucous secretion, but with the tissues loaded with serum, a dilute wash of the witch hazel extract acts very beneficially.
The teeth of children when they are pressing on the gums and trying to make their way out, should sometimes be lanced by cutting the gums. Cut down to the new tooth until it is felt under the lancet; for incisors and cuspids a straight line; for molars a cross cut.
The best way to do it is—let the operator and nurse sit opposite each other, close together; the child is laid down face upwards, its head in the operator’s lap, and its feet in the nurse’s lap; the nurse holds the limbs of the child quietly; with his left hand the operator takes the jaw between his fingers, and then slowly and firmly does the cutting. As the child is still, there is no false cut.
Sprains caused by a twisting of the ankle cause very much pain, although there is no displacement of bone. When it first occurs, put the foot and ankle in hot water and let it remain for an hour in water as hot as can be borne; then wrap the part in several folds of flannel which have been wrung out of hot water, and cover it with a dry bandage, and let it rest for several days, keeping it elevated as high as may be comfortable. When first used again, support the joint by strapping. Strips of adhesive plaster cut an inch wide, may be applied both above and below the joint. It may be best to renew the straps every day,—the hair should be shaved off before the plaster is applied.
There are many LITTLE AILMENTS that may be cured or relieved by regimen; or by such articles as are in every house.
WATER.
A glass of HOT WATER taken in the morning before breakfast washes off a coating which is sometimes adhering to the lining membrane of the stomach, and affecting the digestion.
Hot water after continuous application renders great service to the WEARY EYE and cures the slighter maladies of the eye. If an eye is contused and blackened, foment the parts continually with hot water until the pain ceases, then keep the eye wet with a lotion, or bind on a bit of lean, fresh beef, to remove the dark discolored spot.
The itching of pruritis may be much relieved by the application of a cloth wet in hot water.
The HOT FOOT BATH is especially efficacious for some HEADACHES. If the head is filled with blood and the temples throb, soak the feet in very HOT WATER in which a spoonful of ground mustard or of salt has been stirred. The blood will be drawn from the head and relief obtained.
For those who are troubled with EXCESSIVE SWEATING, tepid sponging of the neck, face, chest and hands with equal parts of vinegar and water at bedtime is useful and agreeable.
Convulsions may frequently be cut short by turning the patient on the left side; but as soon as possible put the feet in a basin of warm water in which is a little mustard, and apply a cloth saturated with cold water to the forehead.
A woman who suffers acute pain in the pelvic region a few days antecedent to the menstrual flux, should take a WARM SITZ BATH of fifteen minutes’ duration before retiring at night.
The ENEMA OF TEPID WATER may be useful in constipation, and in looseness of bowels, in spasmodic colic, and in painful menstruation; also for piles. The temperature of the enema should be agreeable to the patient.
The itching that accompanies many skin diseases is much reduced by a warm bath containing a handful of borax, and a handful of bicarbonate of soda, in about thirty gallons of water.
Those who practice daily bathing, and indulge freely in COLD WATER, are seldom troubled with a cold. Frequent bathing, the head being well dipped, will brace the system and render a person proof against draughts.
There are many obstinate affections of the head that have been known to give way to affusion of COLD WATER upon the part. For inflammation of the brain, headache, earache, drunkenness, delirium tremens, the delirium of fever, epilepsy, rheumatism of the head, diseases of the eye, deafness, loss of smell and taste, and in nose bleed this remedy may be brought to bear. One mode of taking the HEAD BATH is for the patient to lie down, placing the back of his head in a shallow dish filled only an inch or two with water.
The WET GIRDLE is a useful medical appliance to give tone and strength to certain parts. Two and a half or three yards of good toweling with tapes arranged at one end, the corners of which have been turned over so as to form a point, is a good girdle. It should pass about three times around the body; one-half having been wet and put on so as to have two thicknesses of the wet part upon the abdomen and one upon the back. The girdle may be worn every day, but the folded wet sheet is used for a time in febrile diseases, such as inflammation of the lungs, or of the bowels, colic, cholera morbus, &c. Fold a common coarse sheet four double; wet two thicknesses of this in cold water to come next the body; have the patient lie in bed with the four thicknesses around her, using warm bricks, bottles, &c., for the feet.
A table spoonful of CHARCOAL powdered, stirred into a glass of water and drank at once, is excellent in many cases of headache from SOUR STOMACH, FLATULENCE, &c.
Children who complain of choking sensations in the throat (caused by worms), may find relief from swallowing salt and water.
Those who are suffering from DYSENTERY should have a little WHEAT FLOUR stirred into the water that they drink.
TAR WATER.
Every body ought to have TAR WATER in the house. It is made by adding one pint of wood tar to four pints of cold water, mixing thoroughly and shaking frequently during twenty-four hours, and then filtering the water which may be poured from the tar. Given internally it is stimulative in its action, and acts somewhat upon the kidneys; is useful for cough and hoarseness, and for incipient urinary difficulty; locally applied it is slightly astringent, antiseptic and disinfectant; and by destroying the putrefactive germs, it prevents or restrains the process of suppuration. It is especially useful in puerperal septic diseases, as it is antiseptic and disinfectant; the resinous principle which it contains, exerts a healing action upon the genital lesions, and suppuration is prevented. It may be used three times a day as a vaginal wash during the lying-in period, and cloths used to protect the vulva and receive the discharges should be moistened with it. It is a useful local application in the treatment of various diseases of the vulva and vagina, especially for the horrible itching of pruritis. Its use renders innocuous the irritating discharges, and its sedative and alterative action restrains and stops the morbid process. It has a curative value in skin diseases, and in general it may be used in the various cases where carbolic acid is usually prescribed. Other medicine may be dissolved in it.
SALT WATER.
Salt is a promoter of health and longevity, and people generally who like salt, vinegar, &c., should be allowed to gratify their taste. If the blood is too rich, salt may restore it to a normal condition; and may restore to it the needed elements if the blood is impoverished. One of the best remedies for SPITTING OF BLOOD is to drink a little salt water.
For persistent bleeding from the nose, cut a piece of raw fat salt pork, about four inches long, and near half an inch thick and over half an inch wide, wedge shaped at the ends, and force it through the nostril clear back to the pharynx.
A teaspoonful of salt taken just before a fit of the ague may effectually break up an intermittent fever, and prevent a recurrence of the chills.
A spoonful of vinegar with salt in it is an excellent remedy for dysentery.
CARBONATE OF SODA AND WATER.
Probably the anesthetic, antiseptic, and disinfectant property of bicarbonate of soda is due to the ready disengagement of carbonic acid from it. For BURNS AND SCALDS where the skin is not broken, powdered bicarbonate of soda may be strewn over the burned parts. If the burns are deep and attended with much suppuration, linen rags sprinkled with a solution of the soda (1 to 50) should be laid on, and as soon as these rags become dry, they should be replaced by others, or be moistened again in the solution. But for most burns the rags should be kept on constantly, and moistened by pouring the solution over them, as changing the compresses would cause more suppuration and delay the healing process.
If a hand or foot is burned, and soda, &c., is not obtainable, it may be kept immersed for a considerable time in cold water with a salutary effect.
A teaspoonful of baking soda taken each day, dissolved in a pint of water, is a good remedy for habitual constipation.
HONEY AND TAR.
“For the BITES OF REPTILES (rattlesnakes, moccasins, &c.), give the patient about a gill of strained honey every ten or fifteen minutes until vomiting is produced.”
A table spoonful of powdered charcoal mixed with honey, milk, or cold water, and taken every morning will tend to cure any one who is troubled with either constipation or diarrhœa.
OIL.
The application of OIL to the whole surface of the body is a simple method of treatment of such infantile complaints as ATROPHY, BRONCHITIS, CONVULSIONS, DIARRHŒA, and FEBRILE DISTURBANCE generally. Smear SALAD OIL all over, from the crown of the head to the toes, three or four times a day.
For PRURITIS ANI rub on linseed oil freely at bedtime each night.
SPIRITS NITRE.
For RHUS POISONING (poison oak) apply sweet SPIRITS OF NITRE. Where the discharge of urine is attended with heat and pain, pound a handful of melon or pumpkin seed with a lump of white sugar, add a quart of boiling water, then add half an ounce of spirits of nitre and rub them together. A teacupful may be taken every two hours by adults.
OTHER REMEDIES, REGIMEN, &C.
For STRANGURY use bee tea made by pouring a pint of boiling water on fifteen or twenty honey bees.
For ERYSIPELAS apply cranberries locally, either cooked or uncooked. Another good local application for erysipelas is ELDERFLOWER TEA. Linen cloths wet with the cold infusion should be applied, and before they are dry should be wrung out of clean water, then dipped in the infusion and reapplied. The patient should also drink some of the elder flower tea. (F. 177.)
For BEE and WASP STINGS apply the tincture of arnica, or sweet oil.
Lean fresh meat is the best absorbant substance to apply to relieve the pain of a WASP STING.
“To give relief to a child that has the EARACHE close the mouth and blow into the nose.”
Children suffering from whooping cough should inhale the vapor of turpentine. Place this on plates and allow these to stand in the room.
Where there are suppurative DISCHARGES FROM THE EAR, the dry dressing with ABSORBENT COTTON, after dry cleansing with the same, protects the wound from the air, and attracts the discharge from the middle ear. It is mildly stimulant and conduces to healing.
For SOFT CORNS wear loose shoes, and every morning place a little ABSORBANT COTTON between the toes.
For mosquito bites apply a mixture of carbolic acid and glycerine in the proportion of one of the former to twenty of the latter.
For the vomiting which often complicates cases of CONSUMPTION and chronic BRONCHITIS, give three or four grains of alum in a little ginger tea every three or four hours.
Inhalations of steam are useful in quinsy; and all affections of the throat that are painful, are much relieved by inhaling steam impregnated with the oil of peppermint.
Tea and coffee are of some value in nervous headaches produced by cerebral congestion, and are indicated when the face is flushed.
A weak solution of COMMON SALT snuffed up into the nose daily, is a remedy for CHRONIC CATARRH; if a decoction of GREEN TEA is snuffed up immediately afterward the remedy is more effectual.
Cold tea is a good mild astringent application to sore eyes.
Patients who suffer at night from cramps may find relief by having the head of the bed raised. Cause the head of the bed to be raised the thickness of two bricks.
Those persons who are troubled with dizziness after smoking early in the morning, may avoid it generally by not smoking until after eating.
To remove needles, nails, &c., from the extremities, make a small incision at the place of entrance through the skin, and with an obtuse pointed stick, and the stronger solution of carbolic acid on the end of it, by a boring action penetrate to the necessary depth, occasionally making search with a metalic probe to learn of its whereabouts. When reached remove with small forceps.
For PRURITIS PUDENDI, NEURALGIA, TOOTHACHE, SICKNESS and vomiting, when these are due to the pregnant state, apply a blister to the back, over the fourth and fifth dorsal vertebra.
Children who are exceedingly SHORT SIGHTED, may by WEARING GLASSES be benefitted, not only physically but mentally; becoming more active and lively and less reserved and taciturn. A child may be thought a dullard, and to have no aptitude for observation or learning, because his misfortune is to have bad sight; and such a character may be fastened upon him for life, because in his young days he was cut off from the enjoyment of the visible world which his fellows were favored with.
Oculists say that when with the arrival of middle life the focusing power of the eye declines so far that at the usual distance for reading, a sufficient adjusting force no longer exists, it is the preferable thing to put on WEAK MAGNIFYING GLASSES, to take off strain, rather than to postpone their use as long as possible. My own opinion is that when a man can, by sitting with his back to the window and holding a book in the light, at the usual distance from the eye, read the fine print of the newspapers, it is better to avoid wearing magnifying glasses. But we should always be careful to have the light shine on the paper, and not on our eyes when we are reading.
Many invalids, especially those who suffer from uterine disease, are distressed to find that they begin to fail to command the services of their eyes. When persons are recovering from any severe illness such as fever, or from protracted exhaustion, or after prolonged lactation, or watching with invalids, or great loss of sleep; where there has been much grief and weeping, or a severe mental strain, or loss of blood, or in severe or chronic dyspepsia, impaired eye power is pretty sure to appear. The essential condition to recovery lies in restoration to vigor, and sound health, and habits.
They can probably develop and recover their ocular energy by the graduated use of their eyes, beginning with short periods and advancing by small additions.
Ladies that suffer from painful menstruation should not read in bed at the time of the menstrual flow. Weakly persons should not read while lying down; and to them umbrellas, and parasols, and colored glasses become needful as protection from the sun and wind. For such it is hurtful to read in railway cars or in carriages; and to them an atmosphere of smoke, or the air of an ill ventilated, crowded, or brightly lighted room is injurious.
For SLEEPLESSNESS the best remedy is to so REGULATE THE BREATHING that it shall induce the right circulation in the brain, and the repose of the faculties. In breathing have the inspirations and expirations of equal length, and it will at least conduce to the repose of the brain.
For a SLIGHT ILLNESS all that you need to do very often is to breathe full, so as to make deep inspirations for half an hour; and you can rear healthy children if you can secure to them good round chests. To do this, first measure each of them with a tape; then teach them to practice forced inspiration through the nostrils several times a day; offer a prize for the first inch gained in circumference. Flat chested children will soon grow round and full, and the breathing space large. The result will be good health of the children.
A child not more than four years old is sometimes afflicted with DIABETIS; this is usually due to farinaceous food, and the child should be debarred from starchy food and sugar.
One important means to arrest BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE is to put a tight ligature on a finger or on a larger limb. An attempt may also be made to check the hemorrhage by firmly grasping the nose with the finger and thumb, so as to prevent any air from passing through the cavity.
A GARGLE of strong BLACK PEPPER TEA used freely will sometimes be an effectual remedy for APHONIA, when the patient is not able to speak louder than a whisper.
CHAPTER IV.
DIETETICS—FOOD FOR CHILDREN.
But little pure milk can be obtained in cities, and a substitute may sometimes be used; but where good milk can be obtained, it may usually be made the principal food of young persons.
The mother’s milk, if the mothers are healthy, is the best food for infants; and those that nurse should not as a general rule be weaned during the summer months, when diarrhœas most prevail. When the mother has a sufficient quantity of milk, an infant requires and should receive no other food but breast milk until the sixth and perhaps the ninth month, when other food than breast milk must be provided. New-born babies until the age of twenty-one days should be fed with one part of milk to three of water; between the ages of three and six weeks, with one of milk and two of water; from six weeks to three months, two of milk to three of water; at three months, half milk and half water; at six months three of milk and one of water. It should be good new milk, and the water should be warm, or only hot enough to bring the temperature to that of breast milk.
This diet is better than any variety of starch food, but if the best milk that is obtainable does not agree well with the child, a light gruel made from any of the derivatives of starch may be substituted for water in the above admixtures. If a feeding bottle is used, the food should be given at regular intervals, as has been heretofore directed in regard to nursing. As soon as the child’s meal is over, the tube should be removed from its mouth. The bottle and teat should be thoroughly washed after each meal, and the former always kept in a basin of cold water when not in use. A sweet feeding bottle is of great importance, and neglect of scrupulous attention to it is a frequent cause of sickness in a child.
A few more general directions will be given to afford some guide under varying circumstances.
The degree of dilution of the milk may vary with the richness of the milk used.
When the mother gives evidence of feebleness it may be best to wean the child at six months, or even sooner if the mother evidently suffers from lactation. If the mother’s health is robust it may be well to nurse it to the twelfth or thirteenth month, but we should always endeavor to know whether the child thrives best on the mother’s milk. Before the twelfth month she should gradually diminish the allowance of the breast, and increase the supply of suitable food; perhaps suckling the child twice in the twenty-four hours, and otherwise feeding it at proper intervals.
If the child is weaned at seven or eight months or later, it may take for a meal a breakfast-cup full of milk to which is added a teaspoonful of lime water, or a weak solution of soda; and sometimes it may take the yolk of an egg well beaten up in a teacupful of milk, or a dessert spoonful of pearl barley jelly dissolved in a breakfast-cup full of warm milk, and slightly sweetened with white sugar.
Food for infants or for the sick should neither be rewarmed nor kept warm on a stove or in an oven, especially if either sugar or salt has been added to the composition; it is better to prepare no more than is required at once, but if any should remain and be used, let it be brought to a proper warmth by the addition of a little hot water, broth, or gruel, as the case may be.
Food made of bread so as to constitute pap or PANADA has a great tendency to become sour, and a quantity only sufficient for a single meal should be made at a time.
Oatmeal and Indian meal have a loosening effect upon the bowels, but these as well as wheaten bread, contain more nutritive matter than sago, tapioca, and similar substances which may be regarded as modifications of starch.
For the sick have hot things very hot, and cold things very cold. Food should never be prepared in the presence of the sick, nor so that the smell of cooking be allowed to reach them if it can be avoided.
Never taste of the patient’s food in her presence or with her spoon; give food regularly, but in most cases the patient should not be roused from sleep for food; some light food at night will often serve to send the patient to sleep.
Rice forms an excellent diet for the sick and for convalescents.
COOKING FOR THE SICK AND FOR YOUNG PERSONS.
Preliminary remarks. Cleanliness is eminently essential in cooking for the sick and for infants. The vessel in which milk or gruel is boiled should not be used for anything greasy or seasoned; a sauce pan in which broth has been made, flavored perhaps with onions or parsley, unless very nicely cleaned will impart a disagreeable taste to delicate food. Whatever vessel is used the food should not be allowed to remain in it, but should be poured out as soon as done, and the vessel put to soak in cold water. If it is of tin it should soon be cleansed with wood ashes, but enameled sauce pans or granitized iron ware may be washed clean; when taken down for use wipe with a clean, dry cloth.
For stirring use either a silver or wooden spoon; not one of iron or other metal.
The earthenware dishes, basins or whatever else may be used for keeping food already cooked, or for milk, should be scalded after using, made perfectly dry with a clean cloth, and left to become quite cold before milk broth or whatever it may be, is put into them. For preserving liquids (broth, gruel, or milk), a wide, shallow vessel is better than a thin, narrow one; milk should never be kept in a jug; cooked food should not be shut in with a lid; a hair sieve, or wire cover, or common colander may preserve from cats, mice, slugs, &c.
The cake of fat which collects on the top of broth tends to preserve the liquor while it remains unbroken; but if the skin or fat at top is broken, and if the broth or gruel is designed for use at a subsequent meal, the fat should be removed, and the remainder should be transferred to a clean, dry vessel.
FOOD FOR CONVALESCENTS.
Many questions in regard to diet are left by the physician to the nurse, especially while she has the care of convalescents. I give for her guidance a few more aphorisms and directions:
1. While it is true that as a general rule people who like salt, vinegar, &c., ought to be allowed to gratify their taste, and that the cravings of a sick person are not always to be denied, yet appetite and taste were intended to govern the choice and quantity of food in health; and even then, they should be guided by reason and experience. Such articles as fruit, jam, cake, cheese, butter, and milk may generally be taken if there is a craving for them, but if they are not digested, the stomach must be consulted, and not the cravings. Milk and eggs are important articles of food, but they must not be forced upon the patient; cheese is sometimes craved; it is concentrated nutriment, but in some person’s stomachs it is digestible, and it may perhaps favor digestion of other food; do not entirely disregard the desires and taste of the patient; as a rule if meat is craved it is allowable, and it is better to chew and swallow it, than it is to chew it and spit out its nutritive contents.
2. During convalescence, as soon as ANIMAL FOOD can be taken with impunity, that which is most digestible should be selected. With the exception of poultry the flesh of middle aged animals affords the most digestible food. Keeping animal food for a certain time before it is cooked lessens the density of the fibre and renders it more tender, but the utmost caution is requisite to prevent the change from advancing so far as to present the slightest trace of taint in the food.
3. Gellatine in the form of BOUILLON or concentrated broths is valuable in fevers, &c., as an addition to other diet, as it prevents or rather retards the process of denutrition.
4. Sour milk is to some sick persons and convalescents an agreeable beverage, and in cases of atonic dyspepsia and many other cases, it is a good adjuvant in the treatment of slow digestion, where flatulence and a sensation of cramp in the stomach are prominent symptoms. The good effects of drinking a tumbler full or half a tumbler full of ordinary cold sour milk or BUTTERMILK, is probably owing in a measure, to the lactic acid which it contains. It may be taken regularly half an hour after each meal, in cases of weak stomach.
5. Milk is digestible when it is drunk immediately after it is drawn from the udder of the cow or that of the goat, but it is often necessary in convalescence to dilute it in water. It may be kept for some time from souring in warm weather by adding to each quart fifteen grains of bicarbonate of soda. When there is evidence of over-acidity of the stomach, lime water may be added in any proportion up to one-half.
6. Raw egg somewhat in the form of an emulsion, has been useful in certain diseases. Four raw eggs may be beaten up in a pint of cold water, a little flavoring and sugar added, and the patient may take it by sips during the day. This is a light and nutritive diet, but eggs are much less digestible in this form than when they are lightly boiled.
7. Raw oysters are somewhat nutritive, but are not easy of digestion. Lobsters, CRABS, PRAWNS, CRAYFISH, SCALLOPS, and other shell fish are more objectionable than oysters. Fish, especially of the white kind, is not stimulating; if it is simply boiled it is admissable for convalescents, and for those laboring under some acute diseases. In the decline of fevers some animal food may be given; first beef tea, chicken broth, and mutton broth, and other liquid animal decoctions; then white fish and a more generous diet.
8. The value of soups depends upon the freshness of the meat, the manner in which they are boiled, and the delicacy with which they are seasoned; for the latter any of the vegetable condiments may be used according to the taste of the consumer.
9. The nurse should know that certain articles in a certain form cannot be digested in the stomach, because they cannot be dissolved in the fluid contained there. Rich pastry, pieces of hard potato, rich puddings and dumplings, hard stringy meat, and greasy fibred meat, new bread, and rolls that are not well baked are, in general, indigestible. Pie is not essentially indigestible; indeed indigestibility cannot be affirmed of any article of food, apart from a consideration of the digestive capacity of the particular stomach, the powers of which are to be tested.
10. Some mild ESCULENT ROOTS are fitted for the use of the sick if they are boiled in two waters, but they are not well adapted to those who are liable to sour stomachs. Some vegetables, on account of their peculiar qualities, have peculiar effects as remedies. It is asserted that spinach and asparagus act as diuretics, dandelion as a tonic and laxative, tomatoes as a cholagogue, beets and turnips as a tonic, onions, garlic, and leeks as stimulants and narcotics, the red onion as a narcotic in neuralgia and insomnia, and cabbages, tomatoes, and other salad material as anti-scorbutics.
11. Fruits produce the most diversified effects; but peaches and nectarines, very soluble pears if they are ripe, apples if they are roasted, the orange if it is fully ripe, grapes if the skin be rejected, strawberries and mulberries are pretty generally admissible.
FLUID ALIMENTS.
12. Fluid food can in most cases be taken more conveniently by suction through a BENT GLASS TUBE. After feeding, dry the mouth if the patient cannot well do it for herself.
13. Water is demanded in every disease in which a dry skin and an elevation of temperature is present. The temperature of the water may be from 60° to 50°. Small bits of ice swallowed whole are excellent to control nausea. It is refreshing and harmless.
To keep a small piece of ice from immediately melting: Cut a piece of flannel six inches square, snip one or two holes in the centre for water to run through; confine it by an elastic band about the edge of a tumbler or goblet; depress the middle of the flannel, and a small piece of ice may be kept in it for some time; bits of ice may be split off from it with a knife. Ice and water should be pure.
14. Toast water when properly prepared forms a useful beverage in the sick room. As it contains a small proportion of gluten it is slightly nutritive.
15. While febrile symptoms are present, farinaceous matters such as barley water gruel, arrow root, mucilage or sago acidulated with lemon juice, and sweetened to the taste of the patient, are most commonly suitable, but water is the most salutary diluent.
16. Gruel is less mild and demulcent than barley water, and is more likely to sour, but it is nutritive food.
17. Tea is refreshing, and may be taken in moderate quantity, provided it be not strong. Coffee may be taken largely combined with milk.
18. Beer, brandy, and other stimulants should be given only after proper medical examination and advice.
Recipes for Beverages and Food.
FORMULA 1. FOOD FOR INFANTS.
Take of new milk, warm water, of each equal parts; table salt, sugar, of each a small quantity, to salt and sweeten it slightly; warm the milk by the water, so that it will be of the same temperature as the mother’s milk—about 90°; the proportion of milk may be a little less than this when the infant is newly born, and should be increased as it grows older, but water must always be given with the milk. Give by means of a feeding bottle that has been properly cleansed.
2. GUM ARABIC MUCILAGE.
Take of gum Arabic one ounce, boiling water one pint; after the gum Arabic is dissolved, add two table spoonfuls of sugar and the juice of a lemon; cool and add ice. This may be taken as a drink in diarrhœa.
3. INFUSION OF FLAX SEED.
Take of flax seed two table spoonfuls, water one pint, sugar two table spoonfuls; steep for an hour or more and strain, then add the juice of a lemon and set on ice. Use as a demulcent drink.
4. MILK AND CINNAMON DRINK.
Take of cinnamon one teaspoonful, boiling water one pint; steep for a few minutes, sweeten with sugar, and mix with half a pint of milk. Good in diarrhœa.
5. VINEGAR WHEY.
Take of milk one pint, vinegar one ounce; boil for a few minutes and separate the curd. Good in dysentery, and may be taken freely.
6. DECOCTION OF BRAN.
Take of wheat bran one pint, boiling water three pints; let the mixture stand in a covered vessel for two hours; strain and serve, with sugar and cream. This is slightly laxative.