184 DR. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



VIII. For clothes washing, in Holland, Belgium and France the washer- 

 women and washer-men (for in some of these countries the men do a good 

 share of the washing) use a large handful of refined (powdered) borax ; being a 

 neutral salt (having no excess of acid or alkali) it does not injure the clothing at 

 all, but softens the hardest water, or at least materially improves it for wasliing 

 purposes. IMany people use ammonia for most of the purposes here named, 

 but the borax is generally preferable. 



1. NIGHT SWEATS— Remedy for.— Dr. Charles D. Carpenter 

 reports a case through the Medical Brief, of St. Louis, wherein he was attending 

 a " medical " friend, suffering with rheumatism, which continued 7 weeks (I 

 have heard of a case wherein the celebrated Abernethy, of England, was asked 

 what should be taken for rheumatism, and the answer was, " Take six weeks," 

 — in other words, there was no cure, but it would get well in that time). In 

 this case, after the acute stage had passed, recovery was retarded by terribly 

 prostrating night sweats, and after trj'ing half a dozen or more of the common 

 remedies for them, at the suggestion of the " medical" friend, he gave 2 full 

 doses of chloral dydrate. "When the patient was fully under the influence of 

 the chloral the sweating ceased and returned no more, the patient making a 

 rapid recovery. He afterwards tested it in a number of obstinate cases of night 

 sweats, and with uniform success. Dose — A full dose may be put down as 15 

 grs. for a large man; 8 to 10 grs, for a large woman; repeating or giving the 

 second 2 hours after, dissolved in water, say a wine-glassful or i^ of a common 

 tumblerful. I should not give beyond the 2 doses. It has been given in much 

 larger doses, but it is not best to run any risk, unless absolutely necessary in 

 great and long-continued pain or nervousness arising from delirium tremens, etc. 



Remarks. — If it is good for night sweats arising from rheumatism, it is 

 good for them arising from consumption, or any other prostrating disease. 

 Further, it is veiy probable that one of Dr. Carpenter's obstinate cases above 

 mentioned was a consumptive; although he does not say what they were, it is 

 enough to know it is good for this symptom. It matters not, then, what the 

 disease is in which thej'- are present. 



2. Night Sweats, Consumption, Spitting Blood and Diabetes, 

 Valuable Remedy for.— Bugle weed {Lycopus Virginicus), also known as 

 Paul's betonia and water hoarhound; the tincture or fluid extract has been found 

 valuable remedy in all tlie diseased conditions above named. Prof. Scuddcr 

 uses it in all chronic diseases when the pulse is too frequent and the debility 

 considerable, for, as it lessens the pulse — which it does — so also it increases it in 

 strength, acting, as he believes, through the sympathetic system of nerves, im- 

 proving the circulation, the appetite, blood-making, nutrition, and the secretions. 

 In consumption, he says: " "We find it relieving the cough, checking the night 

 sweats and the diarrhea, lessening the frequency of the pulse, improving the 

 apppetite and giving better digestion. It has been used more in hemoptysis 

 (spitting of blood) than in any other disease, its action being slow but certain." 

 — Scuddefs Specefic Medication. 



Prof. I. J, M. Goss, of Marietta, Ga., author of " Materia-Medica and 

 Therapeutics." in his " New Medicines," says, among other things, that he has 



