We have sometimes a combination of bronchitis and of inflammation of the lungs, an attack of the latter following the former. Then the symptoms will be modified, and will partake of the character of the two diseases.
207. How would you treat a case of Bronchitis?
If a medical man cannot be procured, I will tell you What to do: Confine the child to his bedroom, and if very ill, to his bed. If it be winter time, have a little fire in the grate, but be sure that the temperature of the chamber be not above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and let the room be properly ventilated, which may be effected by occasionally leaving the door a little ajar.
Let him lie either outside the bed or on a sofa, if he be very ill, inside the bed, with a sheet and a blanket only to cover him, but no thick coverlid. If he be allowed to be on the lap, it only heats him and makes him restless. If he will not lie on the bed, let him rest on a pillow placed on the lap, the pillow will cause him to lie cooler, and will more comfortably rest his weaned body. If he be at the breast, keep him to it, let him have no artificial food, unless, if he be thirsty a little toast and water. If he be weaned, let him have either milk and water, arrow root made with equal parts of milk and water, toast and water, barley water, or weak black tea, with plenty of new milk in it, &c., but, until the inflammation have subsided, neither broth nor beef tea.
Now, with regard to medicine, the best medicine is Ipecacuanha Wine, given in large doses, so as to produce constant nausea. The Ipecacuanha abates fever, acts on the skin, loosens the cough, and, in point of fact, in the majority of cases, will rapidly effect a cure. I have in a preceding Conversation given you a prescription for the Ipecacuanha Wine Mixture. Let a tea-spoonful of the mixture be taken every four hours.
If in a day or two he be no better, but worse, by all means continue the mixture, whether it produce sickness or otherwise, and put on the chest a Tela Vesicatoria, a quarter of a sheet.
The Ipecacuanha Wine and the Tela Vesicatoria are my sheet anchors in the bronchitis, both of infants and of children. They rarely, even in very severe cases, fail to effect a cure, provided the Tela Vesicatorina be properly applied, and the Ipecacuanha Wine be genuine and of good quality.
If there be any difficulty in procuring good Ipecacuanha Wine, the Ipecacuanha may be given in powder instead of the wine The following is a pleasant form—
Take of—Powder of Ipecacuanha, twelve grains
White Sugar thirty six grains
Mix well together and divide into twelve powders. One of the powders to be put dry on the tongue every four hours.