Papers on Health | Page 7

the nervous system.
Young ladies, as a class, are subject to a terrible danger. Great numbers of mothers actually make their daughters drunkards by ever and again dosing them with brandy. This is done in secret, and imagined to be a most excellent thing. For instance, if the bowels get lax, as is the case in certain stages of disease, brandy is given as a remedy. How little do those who give it know that it is lessening vital energy and making cure impossible! But it is doing nothing else. We have many times over seen the dying sufferer restless and ill with nothing but the effects of constant small doses of brandy, or alcohol in some other form.
In looseness of the bowels we give a teaspoonful of lemon juice in a little hot water and sugar. That has as much effect as is desirable, and it has no bad effect whatever. Or enema injections may be employed. (See Diarrhoea, Dysentery, Enema). Even infants are treated with "brandy," till we cannot help believing they die of the drink, and would survive if it were put away. Gradually the cruel folly of all this will, we doubt not, dawn upon the general mind.
Amputations.--These are often performed in cases in which proper treatment on the lines of these papers, would save both life and limb. By all means, before consenting to such an irrevocable act as amputating a limb, let the treatment with fomentations, hot water, and acetic acid be well and thoroughly tried. Many limbs which were medically condemned have been thus saved within our personal knowledge. In some cases the disease may be obstinate; but at least let a fair trial be given to our treatment before giving up a limb. The treatment will be found under the headings of the various troubles and parts affected (see Armpit Swelling; Bone, Diseased; Knee-swelling; Pains, etc.)
Angina Pectoris.--In a variety of cases, more or less severe spasmodic pains are felt in the chest. Angina Pectoris (literally, agony of the chest) is one of the worst of these. All these pains, as a rule, may be removed completely by treatment such as the following:--
Prepare a bed (long enough for the patient to lie at full length upon his back), with a large thick sheet folded on the lower part of it. Spread over this sheet a blanket wrung out of hot water, so as to be both moist (but not wet) and warm (see Fomentation). See that the blanket is not so hot as to burn the patient and add to his pain. It must be tested with the back of the hand, and be just as warm as this can well bear. On this let the patient lie down, and wrap him up tightly in it from the feet up to above the haunches. Have two or three towels folded so as to be about six inches broad, and the length of that part of the patient's spine above the hot blanket. Wring these out of cold water. Place one over the spine, so as to lie close along it; on this, place a dry towel to keep the damp from the bed, and let the patient lie down on his back, so as to bring the cold towel in close contact with the spine. When this towel becomes warm, another cold one must be put in its place. After about half an hour's pack and eight changes of the cold towel, the pain in the chest should be subdued for the time. If the cold towel does not heat in five minutes, the patient's vitality is low, and a hot cloth should be placed along the spine, and renewed several times, and then another cold one; but as a rule this will not be required. When taken out of the pack, let the skin be washed with SOAP (see) and warm water; then a slight sponge of nearly cold water, and a gentle rubbing with olive or almond oil. Rub the back first, and gently "shampoo" all the muscles; that is, knead and move the muscles under the skin so as to make them rub over one another.
If the pain in the chest be of an inflammatory nature, the cold towels must be applied over the place where it is felt, instead of on the spine (see Inflammation.)
Ankle Swelling.--When long continued in connection with disease or accident, this sometimes leads to a partial withering of the limb up to its very root. In such a case it is best to deal first with the roots of those nerves which supply the limb, which are, in the case of the legs, in the lower part of the back. It is important to apply light pressure to these roots by gently squeezing the muscles of