Mother's Remedies Part 33

Diet.--Do not over-eat. Avoid alcohol in any form. Stimulating foods such as spices, mustard salads, concentrated meat extracts and meat broths, pepper, horseradish are not to be used. Do not use too much salt; strong coffee and tea are harmful. In severe cases milk either diluted with water or lime water or peptonized should alone be used.

Gruels, alb.u.men water, k.u.miss, b.u.t.termilk and oyster broth may be allowed.

Orange juice as well as lemonade may generally be given. Fasting is good in biliousness. No one will starve in a few days of fasting.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Biliousness, Lemons for.--"One lemon squeezed in a gla.s.s of water with a very little sugar, repeat for several days." Lemon is a very good medicine, and it is surprising to know how few people realize what medical properties the lemon contains. This is a good, simple, but very effective remedy.

2. Biliousness, Salt and Water for.--"Take a teaspoonful of salt to a cup of water and drink before breakfast for a few mornings." It is a well-known fact that a little salt in warm water before breakfast is laxative and also cleanses the system and bowels on account of its purifying action.

3. Biliousness, (chronic) Dandelion Tea for.--"Dandelion root is highly recommended for this." The root should be collected in July, August or September. Dose:--A strong tea may be taken freely two or three times a day, or the fluid extract may be purchased at any drug store.

4. Biliousness, a cheap and very safe plan.--"Drink plenty of cold water and exercise freely in the open air." Following the above advice is often better than medicines and spring tonics, also unless doing hard physical labor, cut down on the meat eating. In fact, eat less generally for a time.

5. Biliousness, Salt Lemonade for.--"Hot salt lemonade night and morning.

Juice of one lemon and teaspoonful salt to as much hot water as you can drink."

6. Biliousness, Boneset Tea for.--"Pour hot water on boneset and let stand until it is cold. Take a swallow occasionally." This is very good.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT. Medicines.--1. Nitro-hydrochloric acid three drops three times a day in half a tumblerful of water is valuable.

2. Twenty drops of fluid extract of Queen's root three times a day.

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3. The following combination forms a good pill to be taken every night:

Extract of Chirata 40 grains Podophyllin 4 grains Wahoo 8 grains Culver's root 8 grains Creosote 10 grains

Mix and make into twenty pills. Take one every night.

4. For the Attack.--Take calomel one-sixth grain tablets; one every fifteen minutes until six are taken, and then follow with two to four teaspoonfuls of epsom salts.

JAUNDICE (Icterus).--A symptom consisting in discoloration by bile pigment of the skin, whites of the eyes, other mucous membranes and secretions.

Causes.--Obstruction of the gall ducts, from gall stones, inflammation, tumor, strictures, from pressure by tumors, and other enlarged abdominal organs.

Symptoms.--The skin and the conjunctiva (red membrane of the eyes) are colored from a pale lemon yellow to a dark olive or greenish black. The itching may be intense, especially in a chronic case. The sweat may be yellow. The stools are a pale slate color, from the lack of bile, and are often pasty and offensive. The pulse is slow. Recovery depends upon the cause. Plain, simple jaundice cases recover in a few days or weeks.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Jaundice, Sweet Cider Sure Cure for.--"New cider before it ferments at all. Drink all you can." This is a very simple remedy, but a sure one if taken in the early stages of jaundice. It causes the bowels to move freely and carries off any impurities in the system.

2. Jaundice, Lemon Juice for.--"Take a tablespoonful of lemon juice several times a day." This disease is produced by congestion of the liver, and as lemon is excellent as a liver tonic it is known to be an excellent remedy for jaundice.

3. Jaundice, Peach Tree Bark for.--"Take the inner bark of a peach tree, and make a strong tea, and give a teaspoonful before each meal for five days, then stop five days, and if the patient's indications do not warrant a reasonable expectation that a cure is effected repeat the medicine as above. I never knew of a case in which the above medicine failed to cure.

Keep the bowels open with sweet oil."

MOTHERS' REMEDIES for Liver Complaint. Mandrake Root for.--1. "Dry and powder the mandrake root (often called may-apple) and take about one teaspoonful." This dose may be repeated two or three times a day, according to the requirements of the case. This is a stimulant, a tonic and a laxative, and is especially good when the liver is in a torpid and inactive condition.

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2. Liver Trouble, Dandelion Root Tea for.--"Steep dandelion root, make a good strong tea of it; take a half gla.s.s three times a day." This is a very good remedy as it not only acts on the liver, but the bowels as well.

This will always cure slight attacks of liver trouble.

3. Torpid Liver, Boneset Tea for.--"Drink boneset tea at any time during the day and at night. It is also good for cleansing the blood." This is a very good remedy, especially for people who live in a low damp region.

4. Liver Trouble, Mandrake Leaves for.--"A very good remedy to use regularly, for several weeks, is to use from one to three grains of may-apple (mandrake) seed, night and morning, followed occasionally by a light purgative, as seidlitz powder or roch.e.l.le salts." This is sure to give relief if kept up thoroughly.

5. Liver Trouble, Mullein Leaf Tea for.--"Mullein leaves steeped, and sweetened. Drink freely." This acts very nicely upon the liver.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Liver Trouble.--1. For the itching, hot alkaline baths with baking soda in water, or dust on the following:--

Starch 1 ounce Camphor, powdered l-1/2 drams Oxide of Zinc 1/2 ounce

Mix and use as a powder, or use carbolic vaselin locally. Move the bowels with salts and do not give much food for a few days. Use nothing but milk.

2. The following is good to move the bowels when the stool is yellow and costive in a child one year old:

Sulphate of Magnesia 2 ounces Cream of tartar 2 ounces

Mix and give one-half teaspoonful in water every three hours until the bowels move freely. Phosphate of soda in one dram doses every three hours is good.

3. Severe Type and Epidemic Form.--Give one to two drops of tincture myrica cerifera (barberry) every two hours for an adult. This I know to be very good.

4. The common simple kind of jaundice will get well readily by moving the bowels freely and keeping the patient on light food.

CATARRHAL JAUNDICE. (Acute catarrhal angiocholitis).--Jaundice caused by obstruction of the terminal portion of the common duct, by swelling of the mucous membrane.

Causes.--This occurs mostly in young people. It follows inflammation of the stomach or bowels, also from emotion, exposure, chronic heart disease.

It may be epidemic.

[DIGESTIVE ORGANS 129]

Symptoms.--Slight jaundice preceded by stomach and bowel trouble. Epidemic cases may begin with chill, headache and vomiting. There may be slight pain in the abdomen, the skin is light or bright yellow, whites of the eyes are yellowish, pain in the back and legs, tired feeling, nausea, clay colored stools. Pulse is rather slow, liver may be a little enlarged. It may last from one week to one to three months.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Catarrhal Jaundice.--1. Restrict the diet if the stomach and bowels are diseased. Sodium phosphate may be given one teaspoonful every three hours to keep the bowels open. Drink large quant.i.ties of water and with it some baking soda one-half to one teaspoonful in the water.

2. If you have calomel you may take one-tenth of a grain every hour for four hours, and then follow with the sodium phosphate in one-half teaspoonful doses every two to three hours, until the bowels have fully moved, or epsom salts, two to four teaspoonfuls. Keep in bed if there is a fever or a very slow pulse say of forty to fifty.

GALL STONES. (Biliary Calculi, Cholelithiasis).--Cases of gall stones are rare under the age of twenty-five years. They are very common after forty-five, and three-fourths of the cases occur in women. Many people never know they have them. Sedentary habits of life, excessive eating and constipation tend to cause them. They may number a few, several, or a thousand, or only one.

Symptoms.--There are usually none while the stones are in the gall bladder, but when they pa.s.s from the gall bladder down through the (channel) duct into the bowel they often cause terrific pain, especially when the stone is large. Chill, fever, profuse sweating and vomiting, which comes in paroxysms or is continuous. The pain may be constant or only come on at intervals. The region of the liver may be tender, the gall bladder may be enlarged, especially in chronic cases and very tender. In some cases the pain comes every few weeks and then may be scattered, sometimes seeming to be in the stomach, and then in the bowels, or in the region of the liver. When a person has such pains and locates them in the stomach or bowels, and they come periodically, every week or two or more, he ought to be suspicious about it being gall stones, especially if the symptoms do not show any stomach trouble. If the stone is large and closes the common duct, jaundice occurs; the stools are light colored; the urine contains bile. The attacks of pain may cease suddenly after a few hours, or they may last several days or recur at intervals until the stone is pa.s.sed. The stones may be found in the bowel discharges after an attack.

Death may occur from collapse during an attack.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--1. Gall Stones, Sweet Oil for.--"Ma.s.saging the part over the region of the liver lightly night and morning is very good, following by drinking a winegla.s.sful of sweet oil at bedtime." The patient should take some good cathartic the next morning, such as a seidlitz powder or cream of tartar. Teaspoonful in gla.s.s of water each morning.

This treatment should be continued for several weeks and is very effective.