1-18 



THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



addition to the domestic medicine-chest, 

 desirinj^ in return no other recompense 

 than the credit of the invention and the 

 association of his name with it. Any pri- 

 vate individual, druggist or apothecary, is 

 at liberty to m-ike it, for liome use or for 

 sale ; but common gratitude requires that 

 it should be used, given away, or sold, by 

 the sole name of De Rheims's Paper. Had 

 the inventor any intention of making 

 money by it, as a patent medicine, he stands 

 in no need whatever of tlie ■wind wherewith 

 to blow an enormous pufF. He might say 

 that, having been attached, in a medical 

 capacity to the army of Napoleon I., in 

 Spain — that, having remained eleven years 

 in the Peninsula, and having married a 

 Spanish wife, he became aquainted with 

 several valuable secrets of the Moorish 

 pharmacopuea — that, in an Arabic manu- 

 script, which for centuries had been a 

 treasured heirloom in liis wife's family, 

 he discovered the precious recipe, et cpetera. 

 The reader perceives how very brazen a 

 trumpet might be sounded. M. De Rhcims, 

 being not a patent medicine vendor, but an 

 amiable and benevolent gentleman, does 

 nothing of the kind. The knowledge of 

 tlie properties of pepper he derived from 

 liis maternal grandfather. Dr. St. Leger, 

 who practised at Deal, in Kent, and who 

 used pepper in powder for dressing wounds. 

 The vehicle by means of which those pro- 

 perties are utilized is M. De Rheims's own 

 idea. 



This paper is simply an adhesive tissue- 

 paper, applied to the part affected, after 

 being moistened with saliva or watsr, and 

 sticking wlierever it is placed, exactly like 

 a postage-stamp, only that tiie size and 

 sliape are arbitrary, and the substance of 

 the material thinner. On moistening the 

 p.iper with the tongue, you can taste the 

 pepper it contains. De Rlieims's paper is 

 good, in the first place, for chilblains, tluit 

 lire 7iot broken ; if broken, the medical man 

 should be sent for, and they must be treated 

 with the usual surgical dressing. But for 

 incipient chilblains, which are simply red 

 and troublesome, which itch and sadly 

 tease the patient, even preventing sleep, all 

 that is necessary (after washing the feet or 

 hands in warm salt and water), is to cover 

 the parts affected with the sticking-paper, 

 renewing it, if it falls off, till the cure is 

 complete. The paper is a great blessing, 

 from the mei-e circumstance that it allays 

 the itching. But it does more ; it stimu- 

 lates the languid vessels of the skin and 

 flesh, and the chilblain, in consequence, 

 disappears. 



Secondly, the De Rheims's paper is ns 

 efficacious for burns or scalds by heat as It 



is in the curing of blains from cold. If 

 the burn Is very extensive and dangerous, 

 and the skin is gone, no prudent person 

 will trust to the remedies afforded by do- 

 mestic medicine, but will send for a surgeon 

 at once ; but If the burn is only slight, 

 comparatively, a piece of the paper in- 

 stantly applied to the part will relieve the 

 pain, prevent a blister from rising, and 

 effect a rapid cure. The writer of this al- 

 ways carries a small supply of the paper in 

 his poi-tmonnale, which often enables him 

 to remedy disagreeable accidents that occur 

 to himself or his friends. As he Is, there- 

 fore, speaking of what he knows from 

 practical and personal experience, he can, 

 unhesitatingly, claim the reader's confi- 

 dence in his present statement. 



Thirdly, for a cut. In addition to the 

 service rendered by other sticking-plaisters 

 In keeping the lips of a wound in contact 

 and closed, it hastens the healing, and pre- 

 vents sloughing and proud flesh. On a 

 bruise, it causes the discolouration to dis- 

 appear more rapidly ; on a sprain, it helps 

 the muscles and tendons to reassume their 

 natural and healthy condition. In all this, 

 there is no quackery or charlatanism ; no 

 secret nostrum is recommended ; the bene- 

 ficial effects promised simply result from 

 the external application of a somewhat 

 active vegetable tonic and stimulant. There 

 Is not, nor Is there wished to be, the slight- 

 est mystery in the matter. 



And now, as the marvellous paper is not 

 yet to be purchased, the mode of prepara- 

 tion must be communicated. Dissolve gum 

 arable in water, so as to get a mixture 

 about as thick as treacle; this Is to be the 

 vehicle of the medicinal agent, and to 

 give the paper its quality of an adhesive 

 plaister. Make also in another vessel a 

 strong tincture of Cayenne pepper by steep- 

 ing e«p«!'ci<77ijiJO(Zs in twice their weight of 

 spirits of wine. When the tincture is made, 

 and the strength of the capsicums is well 

 drawn out of them, pour it off upon the 

 gum arable, and mix well together with a 

 small painter's brush. When the mixture 

 is thoroughly blended, take sheets of the 

 very thin paper called silk, India, or tissue 

 paper, and with your brush give them one 

 coat of the mixture, and let them dry ; then 

 give them a second coat on the same side, 

 iindlet them dry again. If their surface is 

 then smooth and shining, as if varnished, 

 the process is complete ; if not, a third 

 coat must be given. But a little practice 

 will teach the manipulator to make the 

 mixture of gum and tincture of such a 

 thickness that one coat shall almost always 

 suffice. 



When finished, all that is further re- 



