WATER EMETIC.
Warm water at about 92°—not hot water—is a most excellent emetic if taken in sufficient quantity. It is prompt in action, and is unaccompanied by the painful nausea, retching, and straining produced by most other emetics. From half a pint to one or two quarts is required to produce emesis. The patient should slowly swallow a tumblerful, then rest two or three minutes, and swallow another, so continuing to drink for ten minutes or more. As soon as the slightest disposition to vomit is felt—or even if it is not felt, after a considerable quantity of water has been taken—the patient should touch the back part of his mouth with the end of his finger or a feather, as far down as he can reach. This will usually excite the desired action. If it does not, all that need be done is to continue drinking. A little salt added to the water will make it more sickening, and will do no particular harm, as it is thrown out again.
It is not claimed that the warm-water emetic can replace all other emetics in all cases. When instant vomiting is necessary, as in cases of poisoning, some more prompt emetic may be used with it. But for all ordinary purposes, it clearly has no rival.
DRY HOT APPLICATIONS.
The use of fomentations is often less convenient or desirable than dry applications of heat, which may be made in a variety of ways. Bottles, jugs, or rubber bags, filled with hot water, hot bricks or stones, wrapped in papers or cloths, hot cloths, bags filled with hot sand, salt, or corn meal, are all convenient methods of applying dry heat.
A few suggestions with reference to the manner of using hot applications may be useful. In applying heat to the feet when the circulation in those organs is defective, it is frequently insufficient to apply the heat to the bottoms of the feet, only. For this reason, jugs or bottles and stones are often applied without effecting any satisfactory results. A much more efficient method is the following: Heat to a suitable temperature two or three pounds of corn meal or salt. Place the salt or meal in a bag sufficiently large to envelop the feet. After distributing it evenly through the bag, wrap the latter about the feet and cover them with a woolen blanket. A rubber bag partially filled with hot water is an excellent appliance for use in cases of neuralgia, toothache, and nearly all acute pains in the region of the head, as it will conform so perfectly to the shape of the part to which it is applied, and may be used as a pillow.
As a general rule, hot applications should not be continued more than an hour or two, at longest, without, at least, a transient application of a lower temperature. Too prolonged an application may result in injury to the part.
WATER-DRINKING.
As a remedial agent, water is of far greater value than any other liquid taken into the stomach. Its uses in preserving health have been previously noticed. Under ordinary circumstances, a person in health who discards irritating condiments from his diet seldom requires drink. Many persons take no drink whatever during the winter months. But drinking is healthful, and pure water of proper temperature may be taken by any one in health or disease if it is taken in the proper manner. Drinking at meals is an unwholesome practice. Drinking large quantities of iced water is unhealthful. Cold water should not be taken freely when the drinker is hot or exhausted. The thirst will be quenched as readily by slowly sipping a small quantity. In fevers, water should be freely allowed. A glass of cool water taken half an hour before breakfast is an excellent remedy for habitual constipation.
Water-drinking may be made a means of bathing the internal structures, as external applications bathe the outside. Water is rapidly absorbed by the mucous membrane of the stomach, and, passing through the circulation, it dissolves many impurities, and is eliminated chiefly by the kidneys and skin. It can be used with benefit in connection with the vapor bath, hot-air bath, and all baths in which sweating is induced. It should not be used in such great excess as it was employed by the early hydropathists, however, whose patients drank from ten to thirty glasses of water a day.