Every Man His Own Doctor / The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle

by R. T. Claridge

In small pox, where there is much eruption on the face, a muslin handkerchief, wetted, may be used as a bandage to the part.

If the head is much affected, head-bath and wet bandages must be resorted to.

Bandage the back and thighs if they require it. In these complaints, as in all others, if the bowels require opening, use injections. Drink plentifully of water.

I treated a young lady in small-pox as follows:—

First day—patient was confined to the sofa with head-ache and general lassitude; next morning, fever and several pustules: two packing-sheets, the first twenty minutes, the other twenty-five minutes; and tepid bath 70° for eight minutes. Afternoon—As the packing-sheet did not heat so soon as that in the morning, it was not changed, but patient remained in it an hour and a quarter—the tepid bath eight minutes—drank sixteen tumblers of water, windows always open. Second day, eruption much increased over the body and face; treatment as before. Third and fourth day, eruption increased; same treatment persevered in. Fifth day, treatment only in the morning. Sixth day, eruption decreasing. Eighth day, catamenia, all treatment suspended; which it should be observed would not have been the case had any fever remained. Tenth day, patient out walking, eruption nearly gone. Twelfth and thirteenth day, one rubbing-sheet on getting out of bed. It should be stated, that the wet bandage was perpetually worn during the treatment.

Patient quite as well and as strong as before the attack. Complexion much clearer.

The most extraordinary thing to be observed is, that the patient was not confined to bed for an hour—felt no disposition to scratch herself. The tongue, after third day, was perfectly clean, and her rest after the first night undisturbed.

The fever was taken out the first day, from which time she was not inconvenienced in the least. This young lady had been twice vaccinated.

The second and third day a smell remained in the room after patient was taken out of the sheet and bath, that was perfectly intolerable; which shows that the virus was taken out, and accounts for the eruption being so mild.

Another friend of mine, 46 years of age, caught the small pox, though he had been vaccinated twice. He was treated much in the same way, and was out of doors quite well the twelfth day, never having been confined to his bed for an hour. Windows open night and day.