First, then, the way to prevent them.—Let a child, who is subject to them, wear, in the winter time, a square piece of wash-leather over the toes, a pair of warm lamb's-wool stockings, and good shoes; but, above all, let him be encouraged to run about the house as much as possible, especially before going to bed; and on no account allow him either to warm has feet before the fire, or to bathe them in hot water. If the feet be cold, and the child be too young to take exercise, then let them be well rubbed with the warm hand. If adults suffer from chilblains, I have found friction, night and morning, with horse-hail flesh-gloves, the best means of preventing them.
Secondly, the way to cure them.—If they be unbroken: the old-fashioned remedy of onion and salt is one of the best of remedies. Cut an onion in two; take one-half of it, dip it in table salt and well rub, for two or three minutes, the chilblain with it. The onion and salt is a famous remedy to relieve that intolerable itching which sometimes accompanies chilblains: then let them be covered with a piece of lint, over which a piece of wash-leather should be placed.
If they be broken, let a piece of lint be spread with spermaceti-cerate, and be applied, every morning, to the part, and let a white-bread poultice be used every night.
269. During the winter time my child's hands, legs, &c., chap very much; what ought I to do?
Let a tea-cupful of bran be tied up in a muslin bag, and be put, over the night, into either a large water-can or jug of rain water; [Footnote: Rain water ought always to be used in the washing of a child; pump water is likely to chap the skin, and to make it both rough and irritable.] and let this water from the can or jug be the water he is to be washed with on the following morning, and every morning until the chaps be cured. As often as water is withdrawn, either from the water-can or from the jog, let fresh rain water take its place, in order that the bran may be constantly soaking in it. The bran in the bag should be renewed about twice a week.
Take particular care to dry the skin well every time he be washed; then, after each ablution, as well as every night at bed-time, rub a piece of deer's suet over the parts affected: a few dressings will perform a cure. The deer's suet may be bought at any of the shops where venison is sold. Another excellent remedy is glycerine, [Footnote: Glycerine prepared by Price's Patent Candle Company is by far the best. Sometimes, if the child's skin be very irritable, the glycerine requires diluting with water—say, two ounces of glycerine to be mixed in a bottle with four ounces of rain water—the bottle to be well shaken just before using it.] which should be smeared, by means of the finger or by a camel's hair brush, on the parts affected, two or three times a day. If the child be very young, it might be necessary to dilute the glycerine with rose-water; fill a small bottle one-third with glycerine, and fill up the remaining two-thuds of the bottle with rose-water—shaking the bottle every time just before using it. The best soap to use for chapped hands is the glycerine soap: no other being required.
270. What is the best remedy for Chapped Lips?
Cold-cream (which may be procured of any respectable chemist) is an excellent application for chapped lips. It ought, by means of the finger, to be frequently smeared on the parts affected.
271. Have the goodness to inform me of the different varieties of Worms that infest a child's bowels?
Principally three—1, The tape-worm; 2, the long round-worm; and 3, the most frequent of all, the common thread or maw-worm. The tape-worm infests the whole course of the bowels, both small and large: the long round-worm, principally the small bowels, occasionally the stomach; it sometimes crawls out of the child's mouth, causing alarm to the mother; there is, of course, no danger in its doing so: the common thread-worm or maw-worm infests the rectum or fundament.