Diseases > Domestic medicine

.DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 241
likewise, though a good drink in the small pox, is
here improper. The most suitable liquors are
decoctions of liquorice, with marsh-mallow roots and
sarsaparilla, infusions of linseed, or of the flowers of
elder, balm-tea, clarified whey, barley-water, and
such like. These, if the patient be costive, may be
sweetened with honey; or, if that should disagree
with the stomach, a little manna may be occasionally
added to them.
Medicine.—The measles being an inflammatory
disease, without any critical discharge of matter, as
in the small-pox, bleeding is commonly necessary,
especially when the fever runs high, with difficulty of
breathing, and great oppression of the breast. But
if the disease be of a mild kind, bleeding may be
emitted.
Bathing the feet and legs frequently in lukewarm
water both tends to abate the violence of the fever,
and to promote the eruption.
The patient is often greatly relieved by vomiting.
—When there is a tendency this way, it ought to be
promoted by drinking lukewarm water, or weak
camomile-tea.
When the cough is very troublesome, with dryness
of the throat, and difficulty of breathing, the patient
may hold his head over the steam of warm water, and
draw the steam into his lunge.
He may likewise lick a little spermaceti and sugar-
candy pounded together; or take now and then a
spoonful of the oil of sweet almonds, with sugar-
candy dissolved in it. These will soften the throat,
and relieve the tickling cough.
If at the turn of the disease the fever assumes
new vigour, and there appears great danger of suffo¬
cation, the patient must be bled according to his
strength, and blistering plasters applied, with a view