As yet the treatment of diphtheria appears to be undecided by the medical faculty; an ailment must be well understood to insure decided treatment.
SCROFULOUS OR GLANDULAR SWELLINGS
may develop by exposure to sudden atmospherical changes, but all glandular enlargements are not a sign of scrofulous taint.
Nearly all of the ordinary swellings of the neck, or of any of the glands, may be entirely removed by the continued application of salt moistened with the pulp of apple. Hot salt-water baths are scattering, as is also an occasional anointing with the ointment of helebore.
Should they fill out with pus, they should be carefully lanced and the matter encouraged to flow out by applications of warm water or a poultice of flaxseed meal; should it not run freely and appear firm, add a little honey over the surface of the poultice for a short time. When the wounds are healthy they may be healed over by the application of an ointment prepared by melting white pine resin and tallow together. The system must be kept open, and the blood well fed at the same time, as poor living both propagates the disease and retards its cure. Scrofula frequently terminates in consumption.
TUMOR. FALSE GROWTHS
May develop in or on any part of the body, in either sex; but in women, most likely to form in the uterine regions. Some of the principal causes have been mentioned in Part I. I will here advise the general management:—Avoid eating fish, eggs, oysters, pork, vegetables of a gaseous nature, or any stimulant drinks; also avoid anything that may depress or excite the mind. As much of the distress which frequently accompanies tumor is the result of wind and loaded bowels, it is best to keep them free by small but repeated doses of warm Epsom salts; frequent hot salt-water baths; anointing the entire body with ointment of helebore, or goose oil. The dress should be of comfortable material. Where there is much bloating, a decoction of water, pepper herb and horse-radish root, maybe drank at will for months; likewise, hop sweetened with brown sugar induces sleep. In this way one may live on comfortably for years with tumor.
BRAIN FEVER.
In all cases where it is known there is a tendency of the blood to the head, the patient should be placed in a cool, quiet room. The hair should be shaved, or closely cut off; cloths wrung out of warm water may be kept continually over the scalp and back part of the neck. The feet and ankles as well as the wrists should also be kept moist during the height of the fever. Small doses of Epsom salts, say one quarter of a teaspoonful, dissolved in a little warm sweetened water, to a child from one to five years old, will generally relieve the blood-vessels, if given long enough to produce large passages from the bowels. The same remedy should be increased for adults. Also the bromide of potassium, administered as in case of diphtheria, is excellent.
It is usually some irregularity, over-work, or undue excitement, some way or other, that induces the alarming symptoms of brain fever.