[123]. See Appendix, Tincture of Roses.
[124]. See Appendix, Lime-water.
[125]. The caustic alkali may be prepared by mixing two parts of quicklime with one of pot-ashes, and suffering them to stand till the lixivium be formed, which must be carefully filtrated before it be used. If the solution does not happen readily, a small quantity of water may be added to the mixture.
[126]. The manner of making this broth is, to take a sheep’s head and feet with the skin upon them, and to burn the wool off with a hot iron; afterwards to boil them till the broth is quite a jelly. A little cinnamon or mace may be added, to give the broth an agreeable flavour, and the patient may take a little of it warm with toasted bread three or four times a-day. A clyster of it may likewise be given twice a-day. Such as cannot use the broth made in this way, may have the head and feet skinned; but we have reason to believe that this hurts the medicine. It is not our business here to reason upon the nature and qualities of medicine, otherwise this might be shewn to possess virtues every way suited to the cure of a dysentery which does not proceed from a putrid state of the humours. One thing we know, which is preferable to all reasoning, that whole families have often been cured by it, after they had used many other medicines in vain. It will, however, be proper that the patient take a vomit, and a dose or two of rhubarb, before he begins to use the broth. It will likewise be necessary to continue the use of it for a considerable time, and to make it the principal food.
[127]. The learned and humane Dr. Rutherford, late professor of medicine in the university of Edinburgh, used to mention this food in his public lectures with great encomiums. He directed it to be made by tying a pound or two of the finest flour, as tight as possible, in a linen rag, afterwards to dip it frequently in water, and to dredge the outside with flour, till a cake or crust was formed around it, which prevents the water from soaking into it while boiling. It is then to be boiled till it becomes a hard dry mass, as directed above. This, when mixed with milk and water, will not only answer the purpose of food, but may likewise be given in clysters.
[128]. I lately saw a young man who had been seized with a dysentery in North America. Many things had been tried there for his relief, but to no purpose. At length, tired out with disappointments from medicine, and reduced to skin and bone, he came over to Britain, rather with a view to die among his relations, than with any hopes of a cure. After taking sundry medicines here with no better success than abroad, I advised him to leave off the use of drugs, and to trust entirely to a diet of milk and fruits, with gentle exercise. Strawberries was the only fruit he could procure at that season. These he ate with milk twice, and sometimes thrice a-day. The consequence was, that in a short time his stools were reduced from upwards of twenty in a-day, to three or four, and sometimes not so many. He used the other fruits as they came in, and was in a few weeks so well as to leave that part of the country where I was, with a view to return to America.
[129]. See Appendix, Decoction of Logwood.
[130]. See Appendix, Decoction of Sarsaparilla.
[131]. When the pain is very violent, and does not yield to small doses of laudanum, the quantity may be increased. I have known a patient in extreme pain take three hundred drops in twenty-four hours; but such doses ought only to be administered by a person of skill.
[132]. This may always be prevented by the operator striking upon the teeth with any piece of metal, as this never fails to excite the pain in the carious tooth.