24.- Demulcent Beverages.
BARLEY-WATER.- Wash a tablespoonful of pearl barley in cold water; then add to it two or three lumps of sugar, the rind of one lemon, and the juice of half a lemon; pour on the whole a quart of boiling water, and let it stand for two or three hours; then strain it. Instead of lemon currant-jelly, orange-juice, or sliced liquorice may be used to flavour. Barley-water is a valuable demulcent in cords, affections of the chest, Hectic fever, etc. it is also useful in Strangury and other disease of the bladder and urinary organs.
LINSEED-TEA.- This is often a useful beverage for soothing irritation in Cough, Catarrh, Consumption, Pneumonia, Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Inflammation of the bowels, Leucorrhoea, difficult micturition, and other inflammatory disease. It is prepared by adding one ounce of linseed and half an ounce of sliced liquorice-root to two points of boiling water, and macerating in a covered vessel near the fire for two or three hours; it should then be strained through a piece of muslin, and one or two tablespoonfuls taken as often as necessary. Sliced lemon and sugar-candy will make it more palatable. Where liquorice is disliked it can be omitted in preparation.
RICE-WATER – is valuable in diarrhoea. Boil the best rife in a good measure of water for ten minutes, strain off the water, and add more; and so on till the goodness is boiled out of the rice. The water is ready to drink when cold. Cream may be added, if there be not high fever; a pinch of salt also, of desired.
TOAST-WATER-is rarely well made. A slice of state bread (crust is better) should be slowly baked through (not burnt), then put in a jug with a quart of boiling water poured over it, and allowed to stand covered till cool. It may be flavoured with lemon-peel.
Barley-Water, Toast-Water, and Linseed Tea are more or less useful in similar conditions, one being substituted for the other for the sake of variety.
LEMONADE.- Cut a lemon into slices, and put it into a jug with several pieces of loaf-sugar. Add a pint of boiling water, cover, and let stand till cold. After straining it is fit for use. Recommended to allay thirst, irritation of the throat, etc.
SWEETS.- It should be remembered by those who provide the diet of invalids that they soon tire of sweets, and that they gladly take something savoury. A perpertural round of sweetened drinks, jellies, etc., soon palls the appetite.
FRUITS.- Ripe fruits in season are palatable and refreshing to an invalid, and need rarely be withheld if well cooked, even in acute forms of stomach disorder. In all cases, whether cooked or not, the skins and seeds should not be eaten. Oranges, grapes, and strawberries stand first for delicacy and wholesomeness, although some patients have an idiosyncrasy that prevents them from taking strawberries. Apples pears, peaches, nectarines, etc., stewed, baked (not burnt), or boiled, may be served with sugar or syrup.
Gooseberries, currants, and raspberries may be taken in moderation. Plums and greengages are rarely suitable. Bananas if liked are very useful.
Fruit syrups, mixed with water, make an agreeable drink in hot weather, or during fever. The proportion should be one or two dessertspoonfuls to a tumblerful of cold, filtered water. Marmalade is also generally acceptable.
25.- Ice.
Ice is a valuable therapeutic agent, and is now extensively used both internally and externally, chiefly to check haemorrhage, to moderate inflammation, and to soothe the uneasy sensations of febrile and other disorders. Physicians vary much in their use of the ice-bag. On the whole the modern evidence seems to weigh against its use. It is certainly only to be employed under the advice of the expert.
In Inflammation of the Tonsils, the Sore-throat of Scarlatina and other acute specific fevers, and in Diphtheria, the use of ice relieves pain and arrests inflammation. Ice also checks the secretions from the throat, and so obviates frequent painful efforts to detach the mucus from the crypts and follicles of the tonsils. For these purposes suitable pieces, frequently repeated, should be sucked.
In haemorrhages ice is extremely valuable. To arrest bleeding from the mouth, throat, or nostrils, ice should be applied directly to the bleeding vessels or to the surface, when it forms a fairly efficient styptic. When haemorrhage comes from the stomach or lungs, ice should be repeatedly swallowed in small pieces, but it not quickly effective it should not be persevered with.
To arrest uterine haemorrhage, by promoting firm contraction of that organ, injections of hot water have been found more efficacious, and their use is not attended with the amount of shock which cold sometimes entails. The temperature should be from 110 degree to 120 degree F., according to the sensitiveness of the vulva and vagina. (See Spiegelberg’s Text-Book of Midwifery, vol. ii., p. 238, New Sydenham Society’s Translation.)
CAUTION.- Ice is contra-indicated in conditions such as the following- Old Age, especially in feeble patients, Apoplexy and Coma, in persons with a feeble pulse; advanced stages os disease; extreme feebleness. In such cases the great sedative power of ice night overwhelm the patient, and stop the action of the enfeebled heart. It is also advisable to avoid too great a shock to the system in any case.
26.- Warm and other Baths.
( plus For the correct of safe administration of warm, baths, a bath-thermometer is indispensable. The hand is a very imperfect guide. In the absence of a thermometer, the nurse should uncover her arm to the elbow and immense it in the water, as the skin of the elbow is thin and sensitive to any excessive degree of heat.)
WARM BATH.- The temperature of the water must be raised to 98 degree F., to a point which is agreeable to the back of the hand; then, if the patient be a child, he should be immersed up to his neck, and a cold wet towel or a large sponge may be applied to the head (for about three minutes only); the child being kept in the bath for five, ten, or twelve minutes, but removed before the stimulating effect has passed off; otherwise reaction and depression may come on. If the sight of the water make the child afraid, a blanket should be spread over the bath, the child placed upon it, and gently let down into the water, if necessary to prevent fear.
The temperature should be fully maintained by additions of fresh hot water carefully poured down the side of the bath till the patient comes out. The bath should be given in front of a good fire, and a warm blanket be in readiness to wrap the patient in directly he leaves the bath.
The warm bath (92 degree to 98 degree F.) and the hot bath (98 degree to 112 degree F.), are remedial agents of great value in many affections. They are chiefly used to equalize the temperature of the whole body, to soothe the nervous system, to control the action of the heart, to promote perspiration, to relax the muscular and cutaneous system, and, especially, to equalize the distribution of blood throughout the body. In the latter instance a disproportionate quantity of blood in the internal organs is recalled to the surface, and free circulation promoted.
The warm bath is often of single benefit in the diseases of children-Convulsions, Spasmodic Croup, Measles, Scarlatina, etc.; also in Scarlatina Dropsy, as well as in other dropsical affections. In the fevers of children, it calms the nervous excitement, and is often followed by refreshing sleep. In infantile convulsions the application of hot water to the head has often a great effect in calming the patient.
It also aids the cure in inflammation of the kidneys, bladder, and uterus; at the grand climacteric a general warm bath, prolonged, once a week, cures or prevents many of the ailments incident to the period, by promoting free action of the skin. In spasmodic stricture of the urethra; in the passage of renal and biliary calculi; in many spasmodic affections of the bowels, Colic, etc.; in Prurigo, Tetanus, Diabetes, Bright;s Disease, and in the Melancholy of Insanity, it is often of signal service.
THE VAPOUR-BATH.- This has a similar action, and is applicable to most of the cases mentioned under the warm bath, but is more particularly useful for adults in some forms of Rheumatism and dry scaly diseases of the skin. The patient being seated, undressed, upon a cane-bottomed chair, a upon or crinoline should be placed over the shoulders, and tied round the neck. Blankets should then be secured outside this, completely covering it from top to bottom so as to retain the steam, which may be obtained by placing a pail of boiling water under the chair. When steam ceases to be evolved, it may again produced freely by gradually immersing in the water a red-hot brick or piece of iron, such as the heater from the tea-urn. It is now possible to obtain comparatively simple apparatus for administering the Vapour Bath at home. The method described, is, however, effective enough it carefully carried out. During the bath one or tow tumblers of cold water should be sipped. To prevent headache, the forehead should be bathed with a sponge dipped in cold water, or a napkin wrung out of cold water may be laid on the head. If necessary, also, the feet should be put into a pan of moderately hot water, the heat of which should also be maintained by adding, after a few minutes, fresh hot water. After the patient has perspired for then to fifteen minutes, he should be quickly washed with tepid water, dried, and at once retire to bed. Or he may sit in a shallow bath at a temperature from 60 degree to 80 degree F degree., the extremities and trunk being well rubbed by an assistant, and water gently poured over the head for three or four minutes, after which the patient should be dried, and retire to bed.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."