Diseases > Domestic medicine

316 buchan’s
patient ought to wear flannel next his skin. A largo
strengthening plaster may be applied to the back : or,
what will answer better, a great part of the body may
be wrapped in plaster.
Medicine —Gentle purges, if the patient be not
too much weakened by the disease, hare a good effect.
They may consist of rhubarb, with cardamom seeds, or
any other spiceries, infused in wine, and maybe taken
in such quantities as to keep the body gently open.
The patient must next have recourse to astringents
and corroborants. Half a drachm of powder made of
equal parts of alum and the inspissated juice com¬
monly called Terra Japonica, may be taken four times
a day, or oftener, if the stomach will bear it. The
alum must first be melted in a crucible ; afterwards
they may both be pounded together. Along with
every dose of this powder the patient may take a tea¬
cupful of the tincture of roses.
If the patient’s stomach cannot bear the alum in
substance, whey may be made of it, and taken in the
dose of a tea-cupful three or four times a-day. The
alum-whey is prepared by boiling two English
quarts of milk over a slow fire, with three drachms of
alum, till the curd separates.
Opiates are of service in this disease, even though
the patient rests well. They take off spasm and irri¬
tation, and at the same time lessen the force of the
circulation. Ten or twelve drops of liquid laudanum
may be taken in a cup of the patient’s drink three
or four times a-day.
The best corroborants which we know, are the
Peruvian bark and wine. A drachm of bark may be
taken in a glass of red port or claret three times a-day
The medicine will be both more efficacious and less
disagreeable, if fifteen or twenty drops of the acid
elixir of vitriol be added to each dose. Such as