A very small dose will suffice, but there is no objection to taking two or three grains for a dose every 4 hours, except the disagreeable taste. I advise that it be taken alone, and not covered up, as I believe that it acts locally perhaps directly upon the organism or germ that is the cause of the disease. I have not, however, relied exclusively upon the one medicine, but have always directed that they should give about a teaspoonful of the saturated solution of chlorate of potash every hour, and that they keep kerosene applied on the outside of the throat or neck. Give plenty of milk and other nourishing diet, and but little other medicine is usually required.
The SANGUINARIA (bloodroot) POWDER is properly given in other cases besides diphtheria. A small dose given three times a day is not only a good worm medicine, but will prevent the subsequent developement and growth and multiplication of worms for some time. It is also a cure for a cough that is dependent on an irritated state of the fauces.
Three grains taken after each meal is a good remedy in chlorosis or suppression of the menses. In these cases it can be taken covered up in wafers or in rice paper, thereby avoiding the bitter taste.
Aconite should be kept in the house, and very small doses given in cases where there is a little feverishness, and no marked symptoms of disease. It is useful when there is an ordinary cold, and may be given two drops of the tincture in half a glass of water, one teaspoonful every hour. These small doses may be given to a little child, and yet they have some effect upon older persons.
Ordinary colds, however, require more efficient treatment, and I often direct the following: A teaspoonful ginger, a teaspoonful cream of tartar, and three large teaspoonfuls of sugar in a small glass of water, to be drank as one draught after being stirred. Heat the feet and keep them warm especially at night. The combination of ginger, cream of tartar, &c., opens all the secretions so that the lungs, liver, bowels, skin, and kidneys act in a natural manner, and there is immediate benefit.
Veratrum has already been mentioned as a remedy in inflammation. If good extract or tincture is used it can always be relied on to reduce the force and frequency of the pulse. It is frequently applicable because in most of our diseases the force and frequency of the pulse is increased. The pulse should be counted when it is first given, and counted occasionally afterwards, and when the pulse becomes less frequent the dose must be diminished or omitted. If an overdose is given it is commonly vomited, otherwise it might be dangerous. Ordinarily half a drop every two hours of the fluid extract is sufficient, but for adults two drops may sometimes be given and repeated in an hour. We have so many maladies that are inflammatory, where the pulse is full and hard, that the indications for its use are frequent. Even in the commencement of fevers, when the pulse is full and quick—where it was formerly the practice of physicians to bleed, veratrum should be given till it has a decided effect upon the pulse. In intermittent fever the effect of this sedative upon it, given at the commencement of the fever or hot stage, is as salutary as is the effect of quinine given during the intermission.
Moderate doses are not liable to do harm except to those who have become quite weak and low. A convenient way of administering it is to prepare twenty drops of the extract in twenty teaspoonfuls of water, and the dose can be easily regulated.
Croup may generally be cured if veratrum is given early and in efficient doses. It is of no avail to administer it at an advanced stage when there is apnœa; the pulse becoming feeble and intermitting, the lips blue, the skin losing its heat; and when drowsiness, coma or other fatal symptoms are coming on. When cough, hoarseness, catarrh, and loss of voice are noticed in a young child, it should be narrowly watched and protected against all circumstances likely to aggravate inflammation; it should be kept in the house, and a warm, moist air should be kept in the room (about 65°), its diet should be milk or farinaceous food; the functions of the bowels and skin should be attended to; some aconite should be given; if there is a slight, ringing cough, place the patient in a warm bath for ten minutes, then confine it to bed; keep the air of the room moist by the evaporation of boiling water; give castor oil or other physic, and small doses of syrup ipecac, and spirits nitre. If the respiration becomes sonorous and difficult, the voice hoarse and gruff, the cough croupy and brassy as it is called, you have the characteristic symptoms of croup. But the peculiar breathing, making a sort of crowing sound with each inspiration, will always distinguish it, and there will always be some fever attending it. Croup sometimes commences with sore throat, and I believe that the sanguinaria powder will usually be efficacious in its cure; but prompt doses of veratrum are still more effectual. At the early stages you may give two drops of the extract, and the dose may be repeated in half an hour, and perhaps repeated afterwards. If there is not evident improvement an ounce of syrup of ipecac or a teaspoonful of sugar and alum pulverized together, may be given if necessary to make the child vomit.
In the meantime hot fomentations should have been applied to the throat. A sponge the size of a large fist, dipped in water as hot as can be borne, should be squeezed half dry and applied under the child’s chin so as to cover the larynx, and the temperature maintained by resoaking it every two or three minutes.
Baths may be used during the second stage of the croup; if the child has a temperature of 104°, a warm bath ought to be administered, and the child immersed in it up to its chin for fifteen or twenty minutes.