Mother, Nurse and Infant / A Manual Especially Adapted for the Guidance of Mothers and Monthly Nurses, Comprising Full Instruction in Regard To Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-birth, and the Care of Mother and Child, and Designed to Impart so Much Knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Midwifery, and the Proper Use of Medicines as Will Serve Intelligently to Direct the Wife, Mother and Nurse in All Emergencies.

by S. P. Sackett

Those who are suffering from DYSENTERY should have a little WHEAT FLOUR stirred into the water that they drink.

TAR WATER.

Every body ought to have TAR WATER in the house. It is made by adding one pint of wood tar to four pints of cold water, mixing thoroughly and shaking frequently during twenty-four hours, and then filtering the water which may be poured from the tar. Given internally it is stimulative in its action, and acts somewhat upon the kidneys; is useful for cough and hoarseness, and for incipient urinary difficulty; locally applied it is slightly astringent, antiseptic and disinfectant; and by destroying the putrefactive germs, it prevents or restrains the process of suppuration. It is especially useful in puerperal septic diseases, as it is antiseptic and disinfectant; the resinous principle which it contains, exerts a healing action upon the genital lesions, and suppuration is prevented. It may be used three times a day as a vaginal wash during the lying-in period, and cloths used to protect the vulva and receive the discharges should be moistened with it. It is a useful local application in the treatment of various diseases of the vulva and vagina, especially for the horrible itching of pruritis. Its use renders innocuous the irritating discharges, and its sedative and alterative action restrains and stops the morbid process. It has a curative value in skin diseases, and in general it may be used in the various cases where carbolic acid is usually prescribed. Other medicine may be dissolved in it.

SALT WATER.

Salt is a promoter of health and longevity, and people generally who like salt, vinegar, &c., should be allowed to gratify their taste. If the blood is too rich, salt may restore it to a normal condition; and may restore to it the needed elements if the blood is impoverished. One of the best remedies for SPITTING OF BLOOD is to drink a little salt water.

For persistent bleeding from the nose, cut a piece of raw fat salt pork, about four inches long, and near half an inch thick and over half an inch wide, wedge shaped at the ends, and force it through the nostril clear back to the pharynx.

A teaspoonful of salt taken just before a fit of the ague may effectually break up an intermittent fever, and prevent a recurrence of the chills.

A spoonful of vinegar with salt in it is an excellent remedy for dysentery.

CARBONATE OF SODA AND WATER.

Probably the anesthetic, antiseptic, and disinfectant property of bicarbonate of soda is due to the ready disengagement of carbonic acid from it. For BURNS AND SCALDS where the skin is not broken, powdered bicarbonate of soda may be strewn over the burned parts. If the burns are deep and attended with much suppuration, linen rags sprinkled with a solution of the soda (1 to 50) should be laid on, and as soon as these rags become dry, they should be replaced by others, or be moistened again in the solution. But for most burns the rags should be kept on constantly, and moistened by pouring the solution over them, as changing the compresses would cause more suppuration and delay the healing process.