Mother's Remedies Part 66

Treatment for active congestion.--Keep the patient absolutely quiet in a dark, well aired room, with the head and shoulders raised, an ice bag or cold cloths to the head and warm applications to the hands and feet. A warm foot bath will aid in drawing the blood away from the head. Give salts (salines) to move the bowels. These take away a great deal of water from the blood and aid in relieving the congestion of the head.

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Treatment for pa.s.sive congestion.--Remove the cause if possible. Give a light nutritious diet; prohibit alcohol in any form; keep the bowels regular.

CEREBRAL ANEMIA. (Too little blood in the brain). Causes.--Heart disease, general anemia, and mental excitement.

Symptoms.--"Fainting spells," dizziness, the ears ring and there are spots before the eyes; nausea and vomiting may go ahead of the fainting spells.

The face is pale, the pupils are dilated, the pulse is small and feeble, and there may be cold sweating on the body. If you can remove the cause the result is favorable.

Treatment.--For the fainting fits:--Place the patient in the "lying down"

position and this frequently restores consciousness; loosen any tight clothes, corset, waist, collar, etc. Give plenty of fresh air and do not crowd. Keep quiet yourself; do not get excited. In mild cases, mild stimulants may be necessary. Let the patient smell of camphor, put a cloth with camphor or ammonia near the nose. In other cases amylnitrite and strychnine may be necessary. Small doses of whisky or brandy frequently help. Remove the cause. Give tonics for general anemia.

TUMORS OF THE BRAIN AND INFLAMMATION, Abscess, etc. Abscess.

Causes.--This is always secondary and comes from some other part of the body. It comes often in young and middle life and is more common in males than in females. The most frequent cause is inflammation of the ear and the next is from fracture of the skull bones. It may be large or small.

Symptoms.--May come slowly or quickly. After an injury to the head the symptoms may come on suddenly such as intense headache, delirium, vomiting, chills, high fever, and sometimes convulsions, and a very deep seeming sleep (coma). In chronic cases the symptoms are not so severe.

Treatment.--An operation if the abscess can be reached. If not, an ice bag should be applied to the head; quiet the distress with narcotics.

TUMORS OF THE BRAIN.--Varieties in order of their frequency. Gumma, tuberculous tumors, glioma, sarcoma, cancer, etc.

Causes. Predisposing.--Men are about twice as often affected as women until fifty and then it is about equal. It is more frequent in early adult life. The exciting causes are blows and severe emotional shock.

Gumma (in third stage of Syphilis) appear as a round, yellow, cheesy ma.s.s, usually beginning in the membranes and are usually seen between thirty and fifty. They come from syphilis.

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Tuberculous tumors. These appear as hard ma.s.ses and vary in size. They may be single or many, and are situated in any part of the brain. More than half of the tumors appearing in children are of this variety.

Glioma. "Glue-tumor." They come from tissue forming the basis of the supporting framework of the nervous tissue. This kind occurs often in the young.

Sarcoma and Cancer are rare.

Symptoms.--The most of the growths start in the membranes of the brain, and by compressing a certain part of the brain they produce their special symptoms such as headache, vomiting, inflammation of the nerves of the eye, double vision, blindness, the memory impaired, dullness and apathy, an irritable temper, and sometimes become demented. There is often vertigo or a sense of giddiness. There may be convulsions, and paralysis of some muscles. A general tuberculosis tendency or history of syphilis will help to make the diagnosis. In children it is more likely to be tuberculous.

The result is more favorable in tuberculous growths in children and syphilitic tumors in adults. It may last from a few months to three years in a bad case.

Treatment.--For gumma, caused by syphilis, iodide of potash and mercury should be given. In both kinds, syphilitic and tuberculous, a nutritious diet and general tonic treatment, such as cod-liver oil, iron, a.r.s.enic, and quinine should be given. The bowels must be kept open and special attention given to the digestion.

For headache.--Ice bags, cold to the head, mustard to the nape of the neck.

For Vomiting.--Mustard over the stomach. Surgery is necessary for some tumors that can be reached. You will naturally depend upon your attending physician for advice and treatment.

SYPHILIS OF THE BRAIN. Causes.--The symptoms of syphilis of the brain, belong to the third stage of the disease, and are rarely ever observed until at least one year or longer from the time of the first lesion (chancre). It may be from ten to twenty years coming on. Both s.e.xes are equally liable, and it may come at any age. Syphilis may produce a circ.u.mscribed tumor, a disease of the arteries or a general hardened infiltration of the brain. The tumors are small, yellowish, and cheesy in the center. They originate in the "Dura Mater" (covering) and spread to the brain structure proper. The disease of the arteries causes a thickening of these vessels, a narrowing of the blood channel in them, thus producing a clot.

Symptoms.--Of gumma (syphilis tumors) at the base of the brain, are persistent headache, worse at night; sleeplessness, depression of the mind, memory impaired, vertigo, sometimes vomiting and paralysis of some of the nerves (third and sixth pairs). Violent convulsions, like epilepsy, appear in some cases.

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Symptoms when arteries are diseased.--Temporary loss of speech, numbness or weakness in one limb, the sight is disturbed, or vertigo; and, when the clot (thrombus) appears, symptoms of apoplexy, This is a common variety of syphilis of the brain.

How to tell what the disease is.--The history of the patient will help. An apoplexy in a young person would suggest syphilis.

Recovery.--The chances are better when the disease forms gumma (tumors) than when the blood vessels are diseased.

Treatment.--Should be begun and properly carried on when the person has the primary sore (chancre), and then these after troubles may not follow.

This is one of the diseases where the victim reaps a big harvest on account of the s.e.xual sin, and in order to escape the bad results for himself, etc. he should go through a regular course of treatment when he first contracts the disease, perhaps for a year or more, This treatment should last as a rule for some years. It is late to begin when the brain symptoms show brain involvement. For this there must be radical and careful treatment with mercury and iodide of potash; with tonics and general building up treatment, and then even if the patient lives he may be a nuisance to himself and others.

GENERAL PARESIS. (Paretic dementia. General Paralysis of the Insane.

Softening of the Brain).--This belongs under diseases of the mind, but there are so many cases that a description of this disease may be instructive and interesting. One author says: "General paresis is a chronic, progressive, diffuse, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), resulting in structural changes in the cerebral (brain) tissue, with involvement of the cortical, and meningeal, (covering) blood and lymph vessels, presenting characteristic symptoms, with progressive course and fatal termination usually within three years." There are three stages:--1.

The period of incubation (the prodromal stage). 2. A stage of p.r.o.nounced mono-maniac activity with symptoms of paralysis. 3. Stage of extreme enfeeblement with diminution and final loss of power. These stages run into each other. First stage in a typical case:--There are tremblings and slight trouble in speech and expression of the face. The mind has exalted and excited spells, etc.

Symptoms.--The patient is irritable. The mental and moral character is unstable. His affairs are in confusion. He uses bad language, neglects his family, goes with drunkards and bad women, makes indecent proposals to respectable women of his acquaintance without realizing that it is improper. He cannot keep his mind on one thing. Speech is a little thick, indistinct and hesitating. Syllables are dropped or repeated, speech finally becomes undistinguishable. He is very excited; he thinks he is persecuted. He is a big fellow generally. He is a king, he is rich and mighty. This is the usual run. As the disease progresses he becomes feeble-minded more and more so continually. Persistent insomnia comes on early and frequently recurring, one-sided headache often goes with it.

Sometimes there is an uncontrollable desire to sleep. Loss of consciousness is an early symptom. After severe attacks there may be one-sided paralysis (hemiplegia) which usually disappears in a few hours or days. Convulsions like epilepsy may appear early, but usually occur in the later stages. The pupils are mostly dilated, rarely contracted, and they are often unequal and react slowly to light. When the tongue is protruded it trembles and is put out in a jerky manner. The hands tremble, in the advanced stage. The speech is jerky and slow. Syllables are dropped and repeated. One early symptom is retention of the urine. There is another annoying symptom--a constant grinding of the teeth. The walk is very spasmodic, but in advanced stages it becomes slouching or dragging.

The skin may be red or blue. When the feeble-mindedness is fully developed the mind does not perceive anything accurately. He sees imaginary things, and things that he does see do not appear to him as they are. Finally he has no mind.

Treatment.--The end is sure. You can relieve the distress partly. Personal attention by a physician is needed.

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INSOMNIA.--Insomnia is not a disease, but a symptom of disease. It may, however, become so active, prominent, and important a symptom as to const.i.tute a condition which merits individual management and treatment.

Definition.--Insomnia is the term employed to denote actual or absolute sleeplessness, and also lack of fully restful sleep, which might be termed relative sleeplessness.

Causes.--Organic causes. Disease of the brain and spinal cord. Toxic causes due to poison circulating in the blood which by irritation of the brain and cord (axis) and especially of the brain, cause such diseases as nephritis (chronic), jaundice, typhoid fever and consumption.

Primary causes. Depend upon insanity.

Nervous or simplest causes.--These are present in nervous persons and comprise the two conditions of congestion and anemia of the brain. The brain congestion is typified by the nerve-tire of the student; over-study and anxiety bring too much blood to the brain and necessarily too much activity and then insomnia. Anemia of the brain acts in the opposite manner. The brain cells are not properly nourished and hence irritated, and sleeplessness follows.

SLEEPLESSNESS. Mothers' Remedies. 1. Hop Pillow Stops.--"People affected in this way will be very much benefited by the use of a pillow composed of hops, or cup of warm hop tea on retiring. The hops have a very soothing effect upon the nerves."

2. Sleeplessness, Easy and Simple Remedy for.--"On going to bed, take some sound, as a clock-tick or the breathing of some one within hearing, and breathe long breaths, keeping time to the sound. In a very short time you will fall asleep, without any of the painful anxieties attending insomnia."

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3. Sleeplessness, Ginger at Bedtime for.--"Ginger tea taken at bedtime soothes one to sleep," This is a very good remedy when the stomach is at fault. It stimulates this organ and produces a greater circulation, thereby drawing the blood from the head. This will make the patient feel easier and sleep will soon follow.