Diseases > Domestic medicine

DOMESTIC MEDICINE. 259
a poultice of bread and milk, softened with sweet oil
or fresh butter, may be applied to them, at least all
night; and they may be bathed with lukewarm milk
and v iter in the morning.
If the patient cannot sleep, which is sometimes the
case, he may take twenty or thirty drops of laudanum,
or two spoonsful of the syrup of poppies, over night,
more or less, according to his age, or the violence of
the symptoms.
After the inflammation is gone off, if the eyes still
remain weak and tender, they may be bathed every
night and morning with cold water and a little
brandy, six parts of the former to one of the latter.
A method should be contrived by which the eye can
be quite immersed in the brandy and water, where
it should be kept for some time. I have generally
found this, or cold water and vinegar, as good a
strengthener of the eyes, as any of the most cele¬
brated ollyriums.
When an inflammation of the eyes proceeds from
a scrophulous habit, it generally proves very obstinate.
In this case the patient’s diet must not be too low,
and he may be allowed to drink small negus, or now
and then a glass of wine. The most proper medicine
is the Peruvian bark, which may either be given in
substance, or prepared in the following manner :
Take an ounce of the bark in powder, with two
drachms of Winter’s bark, and boil them in an
English quart of water to a pint; when it has
boiled nearly long enough, add half an ounce of
liquorice-root sliced. Let the liquor be strained.
Two, three, or four table-spoonsful, according to
the age of the patient, may be taken three or four
times a-day. It is impossible to say how long this
medicine should be continued, as the cure is sooner
performed in some than in others; but in general it