TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 223 



the patient can bear for ten or fifteei. minutes. The parts should then be gently 

 dried and warmly wrapped. 



Slippery Elm Poultice.— Take of slippery elm bark, in powder, 

 half an ounce, and a suftlcient amount of hot water to form a poultice of the 

 proper consistence. This poultice is valuable in all cases of burns, scalds, 

 swellings, intlammaiions, ulcers, painful tumors, abscesses, and wherever a 

 general soothing emollient poultice is required. 



Yeast Poultice.— Applicable to sores and indolent ulcers. Made by 

 taking 5 ounces of yeast and a pound of flour (or in that proportion), and 

 adding to water at blood heat, so as to form a tolerably stiff dough; set in a 

 warm place (but not so as to scald) until it begins to ferment or to "rise," and 

 apply like any poultice. 



MUMPS. — This disease, which is a contagious epidemic, consists of in- 

 flammation of the salivary or parotid glands, which are situated on each side of 

 the lower jaw. 



Symptoms. — It commences with slight febrile symptoms of a general char- 

 acter. Very soon there is a redness and swelling at the angle of the jaw, 

 which gradually extends to the face and neck near to the glands. These some- 

 times become so large as to hang down a considerable distance, like two bags. 



They may come on suddenly, or else be preceded by a few days of general 

 indisposition, which now and then amounts to high fever. A feeling of stiff- 

 ness about the jaws is soon followed by swelling, often very bulky, and more 

 or less tense. The swelling is apt to extend either at the back of the lower jaw 

 or underneath it. The swelling contains no fluid; dental pain is absent. Gen- 

 erally first one side of the jaw is attacked and then the other; it is rare for both 

 sides to suffer simultaneously. Not uncommonly similar swellings burst 

 out in other localities of the body, the genital organs being most liable to 

 seizure. 



Treatment. — But little medical treatment is required for this disease when 

 at its height. The patient, from sheer inability to move the jaw, must live 

 chiefly on slops; and it is well for him to be kept low, unless very delicate, in 

 which case a little good broth or beef tea should be given. If there is much 

 pain, the throat should have hot fomentations applied; and, in very severe 

 cases, two or three leeches. Mumps is not a dangerous disorder, unless the in- 

 flammation should be turned inwards, in which case it will probably affect the 

 brain or testicles; or, in the female, the breasts. Should the swellings suddenly 

 disappear, and thereby aggravate the symptoms of fever, the following lini- 

 ment must be applied: Camphorated spirits, 1 oz. ; solution of sub-carbonate 

 of ammonia, 2 drams; tincture of cantharides, 3^ dram. Mix, and rub in until 

 the swellings re-appear. Take also, internally, nitrate of potass, 1 dram; tartar- 

 Ised antimony \% grs. Mix, and divide into six powders, one of which is to be 

 taken every four hours. 



Camphor for Mumps. — Camphor is said to have been used success- 

 fully to reduce the after-swelling in mumps; in the case of males holding the 

 pendant parts in a basin of spirits of camphor, and bathing the adjacent parts 



