TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 227 



Improved by a trip into the country or to the sea-shore. Pure air and fresh 

 sweet milk, as hygienic and dietetic adjuncts, are necessary for recovery. 



Treatment.— The first treatment should be preventive. ' The little patient 

 should be placed in a well ventilated room. Next, attend to the diet, and ascer- 

 tain if the milk be pure and healthy. If the child nurses, then the mother 

 should properly regard her diet. She should not eat unripe or stale fruits or 

 vegetables, but her food should be nutritious and easily digested. She should 

 not overwork, nor heat her blood, neither should she allow herself to become 

 excited and irritable. She should occasionally give the child some milk alkali 

 to obviate undue acidity of the stomach. Scalding the milk, or using a little 

 lime-water in it, is sometimes beneficial. The following can be obtained at 

 almost any drug store: Syrup of rhubarb, 2 ounces; lime-water, 4 drachms 

 (about 4 tea-spoonfuls), and water of peppermint 2 drachms. Give of this mix- 

 ture, to a child one year old, 1 tea-spoonful every hour until it acts on the 

 bowels as a laxative, which may be known by the changed appearance of the 

 passages. Follow this with small doses of compound extract of smart-weed 

 and cover the bowels with cloths wet with the same. This treatment I have 

 employed with perfect success in my own family and also with the same 

 uniformly happy results in the general practice of medicine. 



SALT KHEUM, or ECZEMA.— In this disease the minute blood 

 vessels are congested, causing the skin to be more vascular and redder than in 

 the natural state. There is an itching or smarting sensation in the affected 

 parts and the skin is raised in the form of little pimples and a watery substance 

 exudes. This disease usually attacks the hands, and depends very much upon 

 the occupation and habits of the person. Washerwomen, and those whose 

 hands are exposed to the action of flour, soap, wax, resin, etc., are most sub- 

 ject to it. 



Treatment. — All soaps and alkalies, and lead preparations, should be 

 avoided. Wash the hands only in warm water, to which may be added some 

 oatmeal or corumeal, or a little oxalic acid or vinegar. The following pre- 

 scription is an excellent external application: Stramonium ointment, 1 ounce; 

 carbolic acid, 10 grains. Mix thoroughly together. First wash the part affected 

 with warm water and oatmeal and cornmeal, then dry thoroughly, and apply the 

 ointment, bandage, and let remain all night. 



2. Make a wash of warm water and oatmeal, cleanse the part with it, and 

 dry with a soft cloth; bathe with tincture of iodine, let It dry, and apoiy car- 

 bolic acid mixed with sweet cream, about 5 drops of the acid to a tea-spooniui 

 of cream. 



3. Take of beef marrow^ sulphur, black pepper, white turpentine, equal 

 parts; mix, make an ointment, and apply, cleansing as otherwise directed, 



SCALD HEAD. — This is a disease of the scalp, and at first consists of 

 minute pustules around the roots of the hair. These pustules increase in size 

 and number until the entire scalp becomes covered by one dense and uniform 

 crust. The disease is contagious, and is caused by the presence of parasites. 



