5. The whole limb which contains the wound should be rubbed with oil, and be wrapped up in an oily flannel.
6. Every three hours a dose of Cob’s powder should be taken in a cup of the infusion of lime-tree and elder-flowers. This powder is made, by rubbing together in a mortar, to a very fine powder, of native and factitious cinnabar, each twenty-four grains; of musk, sixteen grains[[162]].
7. The following bolus is to be given every night, and to be repeated in the morning, if the patient is not easy, washing it down with the infusion mentioned above: Take one drachm of Virginian snake-root in powder; of camphire and asafœtida, ten grains each; of opium, one grain; and, with a sufficient quantity of conserve, or rob of elder, make a bolus.
8. If there be a great nausea at the stomach, with a bitterness in the mouth, thirty-five or forty grains of ipecacuanha, in powder, may be taken for a vomit.
9. The patient’s food, if he takes any, must be light; as panado, soups made of farinaceous or mealy vegetables, &c.
10. If the patient should long continue weak, and subject to terrors, he may take half a drachm of the Peruvian bark thrice a-day.
The next poisonous animal which we shall mention is the VIPER. The grease of this animal rubbed into the wound is said to cure the bite. Though that is all the viper-catchers generally do when bit, we should not think it sufficient for the bite of an enraged viper. It would surely be more safe to have the wound well sucked[[163]], and afterwards rubbed with warm salad-oil. A poultice of bread and milk, softened with salad-oil, should likewise be applied to the wound; and the patient ought to drink freely of vinegar whey, or water-gruel with vinegar in it, to make him sweat. Vinegar is one of the best medicines which can be used in any kind of poison, and ought to be taken very liberally. If the patient be sick, he may take a vomit. This course will be sufficient to cure the bite of any of the poisonous animals of this country.
With regard to poisonous insects, as the bee, the wasp, the hornet, &c. their stings are seldom attended with danger, unless when a person happens to be stung by a great number of them at the same time; in which case something should be done to abate the inflammation and swelling. Some, for this purpose, apply honey, others lay pounded parsley to the part. A mixture of vinegar and Venice treacle is likewise recommended; but I have always found rubbing the part with warm salad-oil succeed very well. Indeed, when the stings are so numerous as to endanger the patient’s life, which is sometimes the case, he must not only have oily poultices applied to the part, but should likewise be bled, and take some cooling medicines, as nitre, or cream of tartar, and should drink plentifully of diluting liquors.
It is the happiness of this island to have very few poisonous animals, and those which we have are by no means of the most virulent kind. Nine-tenths of the effects attributed to poison or venom in this country, are really other diseases, and proceed from quite different causes.
We cannot however make the same observation with regard to poisonous vegetables. These abound every where, and prove often fatal to the ignorant and unwary. This indeed is chiefly owing to carelessness. Children ought early to be cautioned against eating any kind of fruit, roots, or berries, which they do not know, and all poisonous plants to which they can have access, ought, as far as possible, to be destroyed. This would not be so difficult a task as some people imagine.