Never wake a patient to administer medicine or food unless ordered to do so.
To apportion doses according to age, reckon 21 years and upwards as adults requiring full dose; then 17 will take ¾, 14 will take ½, 7 will take ⅓, 4 will take ¼, 3 will take ⅙, and 2 years or under will take ⅛ of the full dose.
Medicines are classified according to their general properties, the following being the chief:—
Anæsthetics—produce insensibility to pain.
Anodynes—procure relief from pain.
Antiseptics—prevent putrefaction.
Antispasmodics—check spasms and cramps.
Caustics—destroy animal tissues by a kind of burning.
Collyrium—an eyewash.
Diaphoretics—induce perspiration.
Diuretics—increase the flow of urine.
Emetics—cause sickness (vomiting).
Expectorants—favour spitting.
Liniments—for rubbing in.
Narcotics—induce sleep.
Purgatives—cause very loose bowels.
Refrigerants—cooling.
Sedatives—calm the nerves.
Soporifics—induce sleep.
Styptics—arrest bleeding.
Tonics—increase the appetite and give a stimulus to the system.
The principal domestic remedies, with their doses (m. means minims, gr. grains, table. tablespoonful, tea. teaspoonful, dr. drams, oz. ounces, dess. dessertspoonful) and properties, are as follows:—
Aloes (compound decoction): 1-3 tablespoonfuls; pleasant purgative, useful in habitual constipation, and will often relieve headache.
Alum: 10-20 gr. in whooping cough and internal bleeding; 1 tea. (in treacle) as an emetic; 15 gr. in 10 oz. water as a collyrium; 60 gr. in 10 oz. water for gargles and injections; astringent (coddling the mouth) and styptic.
Ammonio-citrate of iron: 5-10 gr. in water; tonic.
Antimonial wine: 5-15 m. 3 times a day in bronchitis and fever, diaphoretic; 1 table. (for adults), emetic.