Mother's Remedies by Thomas Jefferson Ritter (positive books to read txt) 📕

is a good remedy for coughs." It is surprising to see how quickly the lemon juice will cut the phlegm in throat, and sugar is always good for cold.

7. Cough, Standard Remedy for.—

    "Hoarhound Five cents worth
    Hops Five cents worth
    Wild cherry bark Five cents worth
    Licorice root Five cents worth

Boil or simmer altogether in two quarts of water long enough to get the strength out of the ingredients; strain, add three cups sugar. Add enough good whiskey to keep from souring, say one-half pint. This will cure a stubborn cough."

8. Cough, Ipecac Syrup for.—"One-third teaspoonful of ipecac dissolved in one teaspoonful of water; one tablespoonful of sugar; pour on one teacupful of boiling water and let it boil down to half cup. Dose.—One teaspoonful for adults, and children in proportion, every two hours, or, if needed to vomit children give again in ten or fifteen minutes."

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9. Cough Remedy for Adults (not for children).—

    "Laudanum Three cents worth
    Anise Three cents worth
    Essence of Peppermint Three cents worth
    Licorice (liquid) Three cents worth
    Brown Sugar 1 cup
    Molasses 1 cup
    Boiling water 2 cups

Let this come to a little more than a boil. Take a teaspoonful of it as often as necessary." This is for adults. Do not use for children.

10. Coughs, Very Simple Remedy for.—"Take one-half tablespoonful hogs' lard or salt pork grease, heat it hot, fill spoon with coal oil and swallow while hot. Have used this, will stop and cure the worst cough." Not to be given to children.

11. Coughs, Glycerin, Brandy and Paregoric with Lemon, Good for.—"Glycerin, one ounce; brandy, one ounce; paregoric, one ounce; lemon juice, one ounce. Mix well; one teaspoonful every hour." This makes a very effective cough syrup. The glycerin and brandy cut the phlegm, and the paregoric is soothing and quieting. The lemon juice is healing to the membranes of the throat.

PHYSICIANS'TREATMENT. For Coughs.—

1. Flaxseed (unground) 3 teaspoonfuls Extract of Licorice 30 grains Boiling water 10 ounces

"Allow the mixture to stand one to four hours in a warm place. Then add a little lemon juice and sugar and place one to two teaspoonfuls of gum arabic in the pitcher containing the mixture." A little paregoric (ten drops to the dose for adults) can be taken with it if the cough is very bad. Dose.—Drink freely every two to three hours.

2. A good combination is the following:

     Chloride of Ammonia 2 drams
     Fluid Extract of Licorice 2 drams
     Distilled water 20 ounces

Mix. Teaspoonful every two hours or longer.

3. Ammonium Carbonate 1/2 dram
      Syrup Senega 4 drams
      Wine of Ipecac 3 drams
      Syrup Totu 1 ounce
      Spirits of Chloroform 3 drams
      Syrup of Wild Cherry enough to make 4 ounces

Mix. Take one to two teaspoonfuls every hour or two until better.

[RESPIRATORY DISEASES 37]

4. Ammonia Chloride 2 drams
      Hive Syrup 5 drams
      Paregoric 6 drams
      Syrup of Wild Cherry 4 ounces

Mix. Teaspoonful every three hours until cough is better.

5. Many other combinations could be given. Hoarhound tea. Sugar enough to sweeten makes a good cough remedy.

6. Onion syrup is good for children. The bowels should always be kept open.

BRONCHIAL ASTHMA. (Spasmodic Asthma.) Causes.—It occurs in all ages, but usually begins in the young, particularly males. It often follows whooping-cough. It may come from diseases of the mouth such as adenoids, polypi. Exciting causes are change of climate and residence, dust, smoke, odors, errors in diet, emotion, and cold.

Symptoms.—The onset is often sudden, often during the night. Difficulty of breathing is intense. The patient cannot lie down, but often sits at an open window, resting the elbows on a table. The face is pale and the expression is anxious. There is a feeling of great oppression in the chest and often dread of suffocation. Respiration (breathing) though labored, is not unusually frequent, as expiration (out breathing) is much prolonged. In severe or prolonged attacks there are blueness, sweating, coldness of the extremities, with small and frequent pulse and great drowsiness. The attack lasts a few minutes to many hours, and may pass off suddenly, perhaps to recur soon, or on several successive nights, with slight cough and difficulty in breathing in the intervals. The cough is nearly dry at first and the sputum is very tenacious.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Asthma, Raspberry Tincture for Adults.—"Take a half pound of honey, one cup water; let these boil, take off the scum; pour boiling hot upon one-half ounce lobelia herb and one-half ounce cloves; mix well, then strain and add one gill of raspberry vinegar. Take from one teaspoonful to a dessertspoonful four times a day. Pleasant to take." The above remedy is very effective, as the honey has a soothing effect upon the inflamed parts, and the lobelia causes the bronchial tubes to dilate, relieving the patient. The raspberry tincture makes it more pleasant to take. In severe cases it will be necessary to give enough of the above remedy to cause vomiting which relieves the phlegm.

2. Asthma, Simple but Effective Remedy for.—"Take pieces of ordinary blotting paper and saturate it with a strong solution of saltpetre, then dry the paper. When a paroxysm is felt ignite a piece of the paper and inhale the smoke. This remedy is very good and acts quickly, doing away almost entirely with the distressing symptoms and shortens the paroxysm."

[38 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

3. Asthma, Lobelia Tea for.—"There is no medicine that is half so effective as lobelia in removing the tough, hard ropy phlegm from the asthmatic persons." This remedy is very good, but care should be taken not to give it to consumptives, because it is too weakening. To obtain the best results, enough of the remedy should be given to produce relaxation of the bronchial tubes. Dose.—For adults should be from fifteen to sixty drops according to the strength of the patient. This will cause a little sickness of the stomach and vomiting, thus relaxing the muscles and relieving the asthma.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Asthma.—1. Inhale chloroform, or break a pearl of amyl nitrite in a handkerchief and inhale the fumes; or smoke saltpetre paper; or cigarettes containing stramonium (thornapple). Sometimes hot coffee fumes are good.

To Prevent Recurrence.—Take five to twenty grains of iodide of potash three times a day. Do not eat much at night. Do not eat foods that cause gas or that are hard to digest. A change of climate is often good. Hot foot baths and hot drinks are helpful. Tincture of lobelia can be given in severe cases, fifteen drops repeated every half hour until the patient feels sick at the stomach.

2. Vapo-Cresolene burned in a room is very good. This can be bought in twenty-five cent bottles in any drug store, with directions around the bottle.

3. Tartar Emetic in one-hundredth grain, two given every half hour until there is a little sickening is a very good remedy. These can be bought at a drug store or from a homeopathic doctor or pharmacist.

BLEEDING FROM THE WIND-PIPE AND LUNGS. (Haemoptysis).—This is a spitting of blood. It may come from the small bronchial tubes and less frequently from the blood vessels in the lung cavities or their walls.

Symptoms.—In incipient consumption of the lungs, bleeding develops suddenly as a rule, a warm salty taste, lasting but a few moments, generally preceded by the spitting up of blood. The blood is coughed up and the bleeding may last only a few minutes or it may continue for days, the sputum being apt to remain blood-stained for a longer time. The immediate effect of the bleeding is to alarm the patient and family, no matter how slight it may be, inducing heart palpitation and other nervous symptoms. A small bleeding is not attended with any bad result, but large ones give rise to the symptoms of shock (sometimes immediate death) combined with anemia following the loss of blood. When the bleeding is large, blood by the mouthful may be ejected with each cough, and in these instances of such profuse bleeding is shown by dizziness, faintness, cold extremities, excessive pallor, sweating and rapid, small feeble pulse. This is followed, if the attack does not prove speedily fatal, by restlessness, and later by mild delirium and some fever. In few cases does the patient have a single bleeding; more frequently there are several at shorter or longer intervals. Large or small bleedings may precede by weeks, months, or even years any rational symptoms of consumption.

[RESPIRATORY DISEASES 39]

Quantity.—This varies greatly. There may be less than an ounce or it might amount to a pint or more before the bleeding stops. In advanced cases, in which large cavities have formed, large blood vessels may be eaten through and this followed by copious and alarming bleeding.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.—1. Bleeding from the Lungs. Salt Water for.—"Give the patient half a teaspoonful of common salt every hour or two until hemorrhage abates."

2. Bleeding from the Lungs. Herb Tea for.—"Two ounces each of bistory root, tormentil root, oak bark, and comfrey root, boil in three quarts of water down to one pint, strain and add one tablespoonful of ground ginger. Give a wine glass full every half hour until relieved. Place the feet in hot mustard water, keep the bowels open with a little senna and ginger tea and if necessary give a vapor bath,"

3. Bleeding from the Lungs, Effective Remedy for.—

    "Powdered Sugar 3 ounces
    Powdered Rosin 3 ounces

Mix. Dose one teaspoonful three times a day."

4. Bleeding from the Lungs, Tannin and Sugar for.-

    "Tannin 30 grains
    Powdered Sugar 1 dram

Mix. Make ten powders and give one every ten minutes until relieved."

Either one of the above remedies is excellent for this trouble, as the tannin and rosin contract the arteries and acts as an astringent.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Bleeding of the Wind-pipe and Lungs.—In many cases the bleeding is slight and no more need be done than to keep the patient quiet and absolute rest. If the bleeding is free, the patient should be placed in bed, not allowed to speak above a whisper nor to change his position.

1. First Thing to Do.—Eating ice, and using ice drinks are useful measures. The drinking of a little salt water at a time with one tablespoonful of salt in a glassful of water is good. In most cases more can be done by assuring the patient he will not die and keeping him quiet and at rest. Medicines should be given to satisfy the patient and family. The most cases stop of themselves.

2. If Caused by Coughing.—If cough causes the bleeding one-half grain of opium should be given to control it, hypodermically, or even morphine one-eighth grain.

3.