The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

EXCORIATIONS OF THE SKIN.

Children are apt to be chafed between the thighs, behind the ears, and in the wrinkles of the neck, for want of proper attention to cleanliness. In such cases it will be necessary to bathe the parts twice a day, (or every time that the child’s clothes are changed,) with a little water gruel, and to apply a puff with a little hair powder immediately afterwards, so as to keep the parts dry.—When discharges take place behind the ears, they must not be dried up too suddenly, as such a circumstance might produce a divertion to the brain. In this case it will always be best to give frequent doses of castor oil, or calomel, every night, in the proportion of one grain to three grains of rhubarb.

CUTANEOUS ERUPTIONS.

No real danger attends these eruptions, which are generally known by the names of red-gum, nettle-rash, &c. All that is required to be done, is to keep the bowels open by such means as are prescribed in the foregoing articles; and to guard against cold, which might drive the eruption inwardly, and thus produce internal inflammations of a critical nature. If the milk or food be considered the cause, the nurse, or diet, ought to be changed: and if sickness and vomiting should prevail, it will be proper to give the absorbent mixture mentioned under the head griping and flatulency.

THE THRUSH.

This disease makes its appearance by little ulcerations in the mouth, tongue, &c. of a white colour, and sometimes of a yellow appearance. They are generally owing to acidities in the stomach, &c.

In this disorder nothing avails more than an emetic at first, and then a little magnesia and rhubarb, (if there is diarrhœa,) with thin chicken-water as drink. Testaceous powders, or the absorbent mixture (see griping and flatulency,) will also be proper. If there is no looseness, it will be proper to give a grain or two of calomel, with three or four grains of rhubarb. The mouth and throat should at the same time be cleansed by gargles.

Syrup of Black Currants.

Take of the juice of black currants, strained, 1 pint,
double refined sugar, 24 oz.
Dissolve the sugar, and boil to make a syrup.

A tea-spoonful of this to be given to children in the thrush.