TO PREVENT PITTING IN SMALLPOX
By careful treatment, pitting in smallpox may be generally prevented. One successful method is to dissolve India rubber in chloroform and then paint the skin, where exposed, with this solution, by means of a soft camel’s-hair brush. When the chloroform has evaporated, which it very soon does, a thin film of India rubber is left over the face. This relieves itching and irritation, and permits the patient to be more comfortable in addition to preventing the pitting. Another suggestion is to keep the whole body, face and all, covered with calamine, or native carbonate of zinc, which must be purified and pulverized for the purpose. It may be shaken onto the body from a common pepper box. To assist in relieving the inflammation sprinkle an ounce of powdered camphor between the under sheet and the pad on which it rests, scattering powder the whole length of the bed, and freely where the back and shoulders are lying. This gives great relief to the sufferer.
MEDICAL USES OF WHITE OF EGG
It may not be generally known that there is nothing more soothing for either a burn or a scald than the white of an egg. It is contact with the air which makes a burn so painful, and the egg acts as a varnish, and excludes the air completely, and also prevents inflammation. An egg beaten up lightly, with or without a little sugar, is a good remedy in cases of dysentery and diarrhea; it tends by its emollient qualities to lessen the inflammation, and by forming a transient coating for the stomach and intestines gives those organs a chance to rest until nature shall have assumed her healthful sway over the diseased body. Two, or at the most three, eggs a day would be all that would be required in ordinary cases, and since the egg is not only medicine but food, the lighter the diet otherwise and the quieter the patient is kept the more rapid will be the recovery.
LEMONS OF VALUE IN MANY USES
Lemons have a very wide variety of uses. For all people, either in sickness or in health, lemonade is a safe drink. It corrects biliousness. It is a specific or positive cure for many kinds of worm and skin diseases. Lemon juice is the best remedy known to prevent and cure scurvy. If the gums are rubbed daily with lemon juice it will keep them in health. The hands and the nails are also kept clean, white and soft by the daily use of lemon instead of soap. It also removes freckles and prevents chilblains. Lemon used in intermittent fever is mixed with strong, hot black tea, or coffee without sugar. Neuralgia may be relieved by rubbing the part affected with a lemon. It is valuable also for curing warts, and it will destroy dandruff on the head by rubbing the roots of the hair with it.
PAINTED WALLS BEST FOR SICK ROOMS
The walls of the room used for sickly members of a family should be painted so they can be easily washed. The painted wall is the only clean wall. A papered wall is an abomination where there is sickness, and a plastered wall can be made safe only by frequent whitewashing. But the painted wall may be washed with disinfectants when necessary, and when painted some dainty shade it is never a trial to sick eyes.
VALUE OF PLANTS IN THE SICK ROOM
It was once thought that it was injurious to the sick to have plants growing in the room, and science never did a kinder thing than when it proved the contrary to be true.