Papers on Health | Page 7

it always reduces
vital action, while nothing is more important in all healing than to
increase it. Hence alcohol is the deadly foe of healing, and one chief
preparer of the system to fall before disease. The so-called stimulating
action of alcohol has been thoroughly explained by the author of these
papers in other writings, and shewn to be simply an indirect and
temporary effect, obtained at the price of a considerable reduction of
the general vitality of 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,