Diseases > Domestic medicine

372 buchan’s
with a scruple of nitre, may be given twice a-day in
a glass of strong cinnamon-water. Ball says, a
large spoonful of unbruised mustard-seed taken
every night and morning, and drinking half an
English pint of the decoction of the tops of green
broom after it, has performed a cure after other
powerful medicines had proved ineffectual.
I have sometimes seen good effects from cream of
tartar in this disease. It promotes the discharges
by stool and urine, and will at least palliate, if it
does not perform a cure. The patient may begin by-
taking an ounce every second or third day, and may
increase the quantity to two or even to three ounces,
if the stomach will bear it. This quantity is not
however to be taken at once, but divided into three
or four doses.
To promote perspiration, the patient may use the
decoction of seneka root, as directed above; or he
may take two table-spoonsful of Mindererus’s spirit
in a cup of wine-whey three or four times a-day. To
promote a discharge of urine, the following infusion
of the London hospitals will likewise be beneficial.
Take of zedoary root, two drachms; dried squills,
rhubarb, and juniper berries bruised, of each a
drachm ; cinnamon in powder, three drachms; salt
of wormwood, a drachm and a half; infuse in an
English pint and a half of old hock-wine, and when
fit for use, filter the liquor. A wine glass of it may
be taken three or four times a-day.
In the anasarca it is usual to scarify the feet and
legs. By this means the water is often discharged ;
but the operator must be cautious not to make the
incisions too deep ; they ought barely to pierce through
the skin, and especial care must be taken, by spirituous
fomentations and proper digestives, to prevent o
gangrene.