THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE
The first effort in treating disease is to remove the cause. This is sometimes done very easily. Mange and lice are quickly destroyed by washes and disinfectants.
Bright, fresh, wholesome food and pure water easily replace bad food and water to the permanent good of the stock. Cattle ticks quickly disappear when the grease brush is applied. And so in every direction you take to fight the disease: find the cause and then remove it, and half the battle is fought.
If disease-producing germs cannot be killed at the moment, it is still possible to diminish their number or to modify their virulence. Thus to open an abscess is to remove the pus-producing bacteria, and hence to hasten recovery. To wash a wound or open sore with antiseptics is the simplest way to remove, diminish, and destroy the evil of the sore.
HOW HEAT AFFECTS GROWTH
At the end of 24 hours in a but seven bacteria have developed, the temperature being 50 degrees. In b 700 have developed in the same time, but in a temperature of 70 degrees.
Helping the Body Fight.
—When disease sets in a battle begins. One combatant is the disease itself, the other the body. Your work is to render assistance to the body. In many cases your help will not be needed. In others you can render incalculable aid. Here is where medical aid begins and ends: to care for and nurse and make the body strong that it may be victorious, quickly, if possible, but without fail, in the end. Medicines are helpful if they diminish the work of the diseased organ, giving in this way time for the body cells to bring about a cure. Therefore rest and quietness are advisable, that no organ may be called upon for any effort but normal function and repair. A disease of the heart calls for absolute rest, of the intestines for little or no irritating or bulky or hard food, of the lungs for no exposure. At times it is advisable to check the activity of an organ, in which case a drug may be given, like opium, to quiet the intestines, or like aconite, to diminish the rate of the blood flow.
In the same way external assistance may be rendered; as, for example, sweating—to throw off poison in the tissue juices; and blanketing—to maintain an even temperature and to protect from chill and draught.