(c) 1 dr. sugar of lead, 2 dr. white vitriol, then add 4 oz. water; shake well before using. Rub well on the affected parts with the hand before a good fire; the best time is in the evening. Do not use this on those that are broken. This scarcely ever fails to cure the most inveterate chilblains by once or twice using.
(d) Quite effective for unbroken chilblains, but it might be poisonous to broken ones, so be very careful:—A small quantity of yellow soap is dissolved in very little water, then methylated spirit is added to just thin it a little, then add, while hot, tincture of iodine drop by drop, stirring it the while; when it begins to change colour there is enough; let get cold, and apply night and morning, letting it dry on. It is only good while the spirit is in it.
(e) Take some precipitated chalk, and mix it in a mortar (or with a knife in a plate, but the first way is best) with some salad oil to something thicker than cream—about the thickness of Devonshire cream. At night apply it thoroughly over all the fingers, rubbing it in, and smearing it thickly on them, putting a pair of gloves on. Persevere every night.
(f) 6 gr. copper sulphate, ½ oz. Eau-de-Cologne, ½ oz. distilled water. To be applied twice a day with camel-hair brush. A capital remedy to arrest inflammation in chilblains.
(g) 2 oz. black bryony root, 10 oz. spirit of wine, 2 oz. water. Macerate 7 days and filter. Apply night and morning with a camel-hair pencil.
Cold Feet.—(a) There are two remedies—the hot bottle and lamb’s-wool socks, either or both of which may be used. When we consider that during the day, whilst we are active, we wear stockings and shoes, does it not seem strange that at night, when the temperature of the air is lower, and when we are inactive, that our feet should have less covering than during the day? The reasonable plan is to have a special pair of socks for night use, putting them on when going to bed, and change them when getting up; the result will be better and more serene sleep, consequently we shall be more able to undergo our daily exertions. A good walk for ½ hour before retiring warms the feet, and sends a nice glow all through the body, and disposes to sleep. (b) Wear horse-hair soles winter and summer, as a remedy for cold and damp feet.
Coughs and Colds.—The British Medical Journal remarks that there are several well-known processes by which a cold may be caught. As a disease, there is nothing so common; and yet it is only very recently that anything like an approach to a knowledge of its pathology has been attained. There is now, however, a large accumulation of evidence which points very strongly in the direction that “taking cold” is actually “being cold.” Colds are most frequently caught from a wetting. The clothes we wear are good non-conductors of heat, and so prevent the loss of body-heat which would occur without them. But let them become moist or saturated with water, and then they become heat-conductors of a much more active character, and a rapid and excessive loss of body-heat follows. Nothing is more certain, however, than that prolonged exposure in wet clothes is commonly followed by no evil results; that is, so long as there is also active exercise. The loss of heat is then met by increased production of heat, and no harm results. But let the urchin who has been drenched on his way to school sit in his wet clothes during school-hours, and a cold follows. No matter how inured to exposure the person may be who, when drenched, remains quiet and inert in his wet clothes, he takes a cold. Here there is an increased loss without a corresponding production of heat, and the temperature of the body is lowered, or the person “catches cold.”
The effect of exercise in producing heat is well known. Unless the surrounding air be of a low temperature and the clothes light, the skin soon glows with the warm blood circulating in it, and then comes perspiration with its cooling action. Here there is a direct loss of heat induced to meet the increased production of heat. Exercise, then, in wet clothes, produces more or less a new balance, and obviates the evil consequences which would otherwise result.
The loss of heat is more certainly induced if the skin be previously glowing and the circulation through the skin, the cooling area, be active. Thus, a person leaves a ballroom with his cutaneous vessels (pores of the skin) dilated, and a rapid loss of body-heat follows, unless there be a thick great-coat or a brisk walk; if the clothes become moistened by rain, or be saturated with perspiration, the radiation of heat is still more marked. Such is the causation of the cold commonly caught after leaving a heated ballroom. It is probable that exhaustion is not without its effect in lowering the tonicity of the vessels, and so those of the skin do not readily contract and arrest the loss of heat.
A damp bed gives a cold, because the moist bedclothes are much better conductors of heat than are the same clothes when dry. The temperature of the body is lowered, and a cold results. Long exposure in bathing leads to similar consequences. The second feeling of cold in bathing tells that the body is becoming chilled, and that the production of heat is insufficient to meet the loss. A run on the river-bank, or a brisk walk after dressing, commonly restores the lost balance.