Mother's Remedies, Thomas Jefferson Ritter [reading well .TXT] 📗

Mix and apply with a camel's hair pencil.

CORNS. (Calvus).—A small, flat, deep-seated, horny growth, mostly on or between the toes.

Cause.—Usually the result of too tight or too loose shoes. Due to pressure and rubbing.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.—Corns, one of the Surest Remedies.—"Take salicylic acid, make a thick paste with flour, put on absorbent cotton and apply, leaving same on several days; soak well and corn will come out." This is a thoroughly tried remedy and a good one. This is about as good a cure as there is for corns. After this paste has been on the corn for three days, it should be removed and the feet soaked well, and the corn scraped off.

2. Corns, Turpentine and Kerosene for.—"A very simple remedy is to apply turpentine or kerosene oil to the affected part on going to bed." It is always a good plan to soak the feet well before treating the corn, as the turpentine will penetrate more quickly.

3. Corns, to Remove Without Pain.—

    "Alcohol 1/2 ounce
    Muriatic Acid 1 dram
    Nitric Acid 1 dram
    Oil of Rosemary 1 dram
    Chloroform 2 drams
    Tincture Iron 2 drams

Mix the above, and apply freely to the corn with little brush or feather until it can be removed with thumb lance. It may require several applications."

4. Corns, Onion a Cure for.—"Soak a small onion in vinegar four hours, then cut in two and bind on the corn at night. In the morning (if the onion has remained over the corn) the soreness will be gone and you can pick out the core. If not cured in first application repeat."

5. Corns, Castile Soap an Effective Remedy for.—"Rub the corn night and morning with castile soap, as often as possible shave it, being careful not to cut deep enough to make it bleed." Be faithful in soaping it thoroughly night and morning for several days until it disappears. This is a very simple but effective remedy.

6. Hard Corns, Iodine a Successful Remedy for.—"Paint the corns with iodine every night for three nights, stop three nights, then apply three nights again, and so on for two weeks." Have tried this and know it to be very successful, especially good for hard corns.

7. Corns, Castor Oil for.—"Apply castor oil; rub it thoroughly, then soak feet. It will soften and remove corns."

8. Corns, Vinegar and Bread for.—"Take bread and soak in vinegar for twenty-four hours, put a plaster on for three or four nights. If not cured on first application, repeat."

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Corns.—Remove the cause; soften them by prolonged soaking in hot water, and then gently scrape off the softened particles, continue this for several days; then put a narrow strip of rubber or salicylated plaster (adhesive plaster) over to protect them from pressure. The following is good to soften them:

1. Salicylic Acid 1-1/2 dram Extract of Cannabis indica 10 grains Collodion 1 ounce

Mix and paint on the corn for several days and after soaking corn scrape it off with a sharp knife.

2. A Good but Weaker Remedy:-

    Salicylic Acid 30 grains
    Extract of Cannabis indica 5 to 10 grains
    Collodion 1/2 ounce

Both of these prescriptions are good, the first being stronger with salicylic acid.

3. When the corns are soft with inflammation, wash and dry the foot and apply a solution of nitrate of silver, sixty to one hundred and twenty grains to the ounce of water, to every part every four or five days.

Ulcerating Corns.—Cauterize with nitrate of silver in stick form.

CARBUNCLE. (Anthrax).—A carbuncle is an acute circumscribed inflammation of the skin and tissues beneath, of the size of an egg, orange, or larger. It is a hard mass and ends in local death of some of the tissue and formation of pus, which empties upon the surface through several sieve-like openings.

Symptoms.—There is a feeling of general sickness, chilliness and some fever. The skin over the sore part is hot and painful. The several dead parts may run together until the entire mass separates in a slough. In favorable cases it proceeds to heal kindly, but in severe cases it may spread to the surrounding tissues and end fatally, sometimes by the absorption of putrid materials, or by the resulting weakness. It runs usually from two to five weeks.

Causes.—It comes in middle or advanced life, usually oftener in men than in women. It occurs frequently in patients suffering from diabetes, in whom it is usually fatal.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Carbuncles, Poppy Leaves to Draw and Ripen.—"A poultice of poppy leaves is very efficacious to draw or ripen a carbuncle." A poultice made from these leaves is very quieting and soothing, and at the same time will cause the carbuncle to ripen.

2. Carbuncle, Slippery Elm and Sassafras Root for.—"Sassafras root and slippery elm bark boiled together and the decoction thickened with cornmeal." This should be changed as often as it becomes cool.

3. Carbuncle, Sheep Sorrel Poultice for.—"Gather a bunch of sheep sorrel leaves, wrap them in a cabbage leaf and roast in the oven. Apply to the carbuncle, and it will soon ripen and break."

4. Carbuncle, Bread and Milk Poultice for.—"Keep warm bread and milk poultice on until the core comes out, then put on salve or vaselin and keep covered until all healed."

5. Carbuncle, the Common Scabious for.—"Take scabious, the green herb and bruise it. Apply this to the affected part. This has been found a very effectual remedy." The common field scabious have many hairy, soft, whitish green leaves, some of which are very small and rough on the edges, others have hairy green leaves deeply and finely divided and branched a little. Flowers size of small walnut and composed of many little ones. Sometimes called "Morning Bride," "Devil's Bit," etc.

6. Carbuncle, Snap Bean Poultice for.—"Apply snap bean leaves beat up fine. Bruise the leaves until they are real fine, then apply as a poultice."

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Carbuncles.—Keep up the strength by a nourishing diet and in some cases, stimulants.

Local.—Cut it open thoroughly by a cross (crucial) cut, like this (x). The cut must reach through the mass to sound tissue beneath and beyond it. Then scrape out all the dead tissue. Dress with iodoform or sterile gauze. An antiseptic like listerine, glyco-thymoline, etc., can be used to wet the gauze, put on as a dressing afterwards and then more dry gauze above, strapped with adhesive plaster. Water and instruments must be boiled, hands must be absolutely clean. Everything around it must be clean. Sometimes it is necessary to go slowly and take out at each dressing only what can be easily removed, It is not always possible to get the whole mass away at once. Opening the carbuncle and giving free drainage afford great relief from the fever and often general symptoms. When the part feels as if it needed redressing, it should be done, for it then gives much relief. The dressings frequently become hard and do not absorb all of the material ready to be discharged. It is usually proper and prudent to dress a carbuncle two or three times a day. There is no danger if the one who dresses it is clean with the instruments, hands and gauze or cotton.

LIVER SPOTS, Moth Patch, Chloasma, etc.—This is a discoloration of the skin of a yellowish to a blackish tint of varying size and shape.

Causes.—It may be due to external agencies, such as rubbing, scratching, heat (tanning and sunburn) blistering; or due to diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, malaria, Addison's disease, disease of the womb, pregnancy.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Liver Spots.—Remove all causes if possible.

Local.—This must be carefully used, find out first how sensitive the skin is. Dr. Bulkley recommends this lotion:

    Corrosive Sublimate 5 grains
    Dilute Acetic Acid 2 drams
    Borax 40 grains
    Rose water enough for 4 ounces

Shake bottle, mix and apply to the part night and morning. If the skin becomes too scaly, a mild soothing ointment should be substituted for the above. White suggests the following:

    Hydrarg. Ammon. Chlar 2 drams
    Subnitrate Bismuth 2 drams
    Starch 1/20 ounce
    Glycerin 1/2 ounce

Mix and apply twice daily.

The application of peroxide of hydrogen has only a temporary effect.

BLACK-HEADS. Flesh Worms, Comedones, Pimples, etc.—This is a disorder of the sebaceous glands in which the sebaceous (fatty, cheesy) secretions become thickened; the excreting ducts, appearing on the surface, as yellowish or blackish points. They appear chiefly on the face, neck, chest, and back and are very unsightly.

Symptoms.—They are easily pressed out, and appear then as thread-like, whitish masses which contain fatty material. The black point may be due to pigment or to dirt from without. Comedones may exist with acne and seborrhoea and excessive secretion of sebum.

Causes.—Want of tone to the skin, which performs its functions sluggishly. Stomach-bowel disorders, menstrual disturbances and anemia are other causes and assist in making them worse. Improper care of the skin and dusty air may be other assistant causes.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. For Pimples and Black-heads.—l. Pimples on the face, effective yet harmless remedy for:

    Camphor 10 grains
    Acacia (pulverized) 20 grains
    Sulphur (precipitated) 2 drams
    Lime water 2 ounces
    Rose water 2 ounces

Apply on the face with a soft cloth at bedtime. Allow to dry and brush off the excess of the powder.

Anyone suffering from these eruptions is usually willing to try every known remedy. The above is excellent and very effective and is harmless.

2. Pimples, Alum Water for.—"Take a teaspoonful of alum to a quart of water and use as a wash, say three times a day. This will cure ordinary pimples on the face."

3. Skin Blotches, Cream of Tartar and Sulphur for.—"Two ounces cream tartar and one ounce of powdered sulphur (from the lump). Mix. Dose:—Teaspoonful in a little water three times a day will cure."

4. Rough Skin, Healing Cream for.—"One-fourth cup tallow melted, one teaspoonful glycerin, small lump camphor, dissolved. Mix all together by warming sufficiently." Rub in thoroughly as you do any face cream.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Pimples.—Remove the cause if possible. The diet should be like that given under dyspepsia and constipation. Menstrual disorders should be remedied.

Local.—Remove the plugs (of sebum) and stimulate the skin glands. For this purpose prolonged (ten minutes at a time) bathing of the face with hot water and soap; tincture of green soap in the more indolent, sluggish cases, should precede the pressing out of the blackheads: Lateral pressure with the fingers or with the comedone extractor, especially contrived for this purpose, will express the black-heads. After they are out, the skin dried and cleaned, various stimulating remedies can be applied in ointments and lotions such as following:

1. "Precipitated Sulphur 1 dram Ointment of Rose water 1 ounce

Mix and rub on at night."

2. Beta-Naphthol 1/2 dram
      Resorcin