Poultice the boil from the beginning with bread and linseed meal mixed with a little glycerine or sweet oil. When fully to a head and ripened the boil should be opened and the pus drained out. Then dress the wound with some soothing ointment spread on soft linen.
Carbuncles are apt to be much more serious than ordinary boils, and are very weakening to the system, in which they show a weakness already to exist. They should be carefully poulticed and treated as above, but the best advice is to call a good doctor and draw on his knowledge of treatment at once.
THE PROPER WAY TO MAKE A MUSTARD PLASTER
The making of a mustard plaster may seem a very simple thing, yet there are few households in which it is properly done. Care and attention must be given the work in order to have the results satisfactory.
A plaster should never be applied cold to a patient, the shock being too great. It should either be mixed with warm water or well heated after mixing. Strong ground mustard should be used, a little flour added, and the whole stirred to a smooth, thick paste with warm borax water, which soothes and prevents too great irritation. Some nurses add a teaspoonful of molasses or mix the mustard with the white of an egg. When prepared spread a piece of old linen on a warm plate, cover with the mixture, lay a second cloth over and apply at once. If allowed to remain on until the skin is burned or blistered, bathe gently with a little borax water, dry, and rub with vaseline.
DANGER IN DAMP SHEETS
Among the dangers which beset travelers in strange hotels and elsewhere is the really great peril of sleeping in damp sheets. It is hard enough to secure the proper airing of linen and clothes at home. Unless each article is unfolded and its position changed until all the moisture has been driven out of it, it is really not fully dried. As a matter of fact heavy articles, such as sheets, are scarcely ever thoroughly dry, and when delicate persons, perhaps fatigued by a journey, seek rest in a bed made of them, they risk rheumatism and other mischief. In case of doubt it is better to remove the sheets from the bed and sleep in the blankets until assured that the linen is thoroughly dry.
TAR AND TURPENTINE FOR DIPHTHERIA
The vapors of tar and turpentine are of great value in the treatment of diphtheria. The process is simple. Pour equal parts of turpentine and tar into a tin pan or cup and set fire to the mixture. A dense resinous smoke arises which clouds the air of the room. The patient immediately experiences relief. The choking and rattle in the throat stop, the patient falls into a slumber, and seems to inhale the smoke with pleasure. The vapors dissolve the fibrous membrane which chokes up the throat in croup and diphtheria, and it is coughed up readily. A remedy so convenient and so easily given should be in every household for prompt use when necessary.
Turpentine also is a convenient remedy for croup. Saturate a piece of flannel with it and place the flannel on the throat and chest. In a very severe case three or four drops in a lump of sugar may be taken internally.