But, at all events, it shows that there is an overcharged condition of the blood-vessels, which should be promptly relieved. Efforts to this end should be both general and special. I have here inserted the general course, which is to reduce the blood in density by keeping the system open. Applications of ice, or ice-cold baths, over the head, after the fever is at its height, does not always prove beneficial to the general circulation. Ice may cause the blood to congeal in the parts, and thus prevent a chance for the removal of the pressure, through the ascending and descending blood-vessels. Cold water checks the flow of blood, while, on the other hand, warm water assists it to flow. It is just this assistance that is needed to free the system from all poisonous irritants, and when timely and rightly applied it cannot fail to relieve.
FORMULA FOR MAKING DOCTRESS CRUMPLER’S VEGETABLE ALTERATIVE.
Take of fresh Indian posy and water pepper herbs, each one ounce; white pine bark, or tops, one half ounce; horehound herb, one fourth. Simmer in two quarts of water in a covered vessel four or five hours. Have three pints when strained; then add two and one half pounds of loaf sugar. Boil briskly to a clear, thick syrup; pour out, and stir in while hot, one teaspoonful of pulverized mandrake root. Strain again through a fine cloth, and, when cold, bottle and keep in a cool, dark place. If podophyllin, the concentrated mandrake is used—which I prefer—only one half-teaspoonful is required to a quart of syrup. Dose for an adult, from one half to two-thirds of a small wineglassful once a day while resting. Dose for small children, in case of bloating, worms, cough, from half to a whole teaspoonful at bed-time for a short while. Good to remove old colds from continued exposures, morbid craving for tobacco, alcoholic beverages or other blood poisoning idols, for which the dose is one teaspoonful in a glass of cold water at every inclination to drink, chew, or smoke.
Perseverance will insure success. No remedy should be continued after relief is obtained; too much physicking impoverishes the blood.
NOTE.
In the paragraph on Sore Throat, page [102], I alluded to the danger of giving hot drinks in scarlet fever: the same precautions were intended for measles, or any of the skin diseases. But owing to a circumstance which occurred with a young mother since the publication, I am constrained to add some special advice for the management of measles. This disease usually appears in the latter part of winter or the first of spring. Children of various ages are liable to take it. This disease comes on with some degree of sick headache, hot, dry skin, and not unfrequently with cough and sore throat. A person may have it more than once, it may be carried around in the clothes of visitors, or retained for some time in the bedding, wall papers and carpets. It is very dangerous to give hot drinks, to hasten the pimples to appear; they usually do so about the fourth day after the fever begins, and if nothing was given, unless the person was kept very cold indeed, they would appear. It is this mistaken interference with Nature that causes many fatal terminations of measles. The severe headache, heat, swollen face and eyes, denote that the treatment should be rather cooling, in order to mitigate the suffering. As a general thing measles need not be considered to be any more than a cold; with a gentle purge, warm baths, and drinks of warm water and lemonade, the patient will be all right in about eight or ten days. But as the lungs are liable to be more or less affected, a physician should be called in, that their true condition may be known in the commencement.
ERRATA.
On page [16], line 7, for mama, read mamma.
On page [50], line 21, for panacea read panada.