Emetics, which are commonly sold in doses, white and grey, and of different degrees of strength.
Sudorifics—among which we have used Dover’s powders as a convenient form.
Eyewashes.—Weak solutions, sulphate of zinc and diacetate of lead, or weak brandy and water, may be used.
It may be needful to carry a small quantity of blistering plaster—or rather the materials of which to make it—soft wash-leather, ointment of Spanish fly, &c., or mustard.
Tincture of arnica, used in the proportion of one part tincture to eight parts water, is a valuable application for strains or contusions.
Glycerine, or cold cream, may be used as cooling applications to irritated surfaces.
Effervescing powders.—The blue paper contains carbonate of soda, 30grs.; the white, tartaric acid, 25grs. 1lb. of carbonate of soda, and 13½oz. of tartaric acid, make 256 powders of each sort; or, 1½oz. of carbonate of soda, and 3oz. of tartarised soda, packed in blue, and 7drs. of tartaric acid, in white, will make twelve sets.
All salts must be kept in bottles closely stoppered, and only put in paper for immediate use.
Antiscorbutics.—Almost any vegetable; plenty of sugar; fresh fruit; dried tamarinds; good lime juice, vinegar, or citric acid; raw potatoes, with the strong earthy taste as fresh as possible; the pulp of the cream of tartar tree or Baobab in Africa, or of the Gouty-stem (Adansonia Gregorii) in Australia. Dr. Kane, in his Arctic voyages, found fresh raw meat a remedy.
It will be well for the traveller to limit his equipment to a few simple and really useful medicines, of which a sufficient supply for the maladies to be expected in the country he is bound for should be taken. A complicated assortment would serve only to confuse him, and it is better even to trust solely to nature than to tamper unskilfully with dangerous remedies.