Diseases > Domestic medicine

390 buchan’s
A slight degree of scurvy may be carried off by
frequently sucking a little of the juice of a hitter
orange, or a lemon. When the disease affects the
gums only, this practice, if continued for some time,
will generally carry it off. We would, however, re¬
commend the bitter orange as greatly preferable to
lemon; it seems to be as good a medicine, and is not
near so hurtful to the stomach. Perhaps our own
sorrel may be little inferior to either of them.
All kinds of salad are good in the scurvy, and
ought to be eaten very plentifully, as spinage, lettuce,
parsley, celery, endive, radish, dandelion, &c. It is
amazing to see how soon fresh vegetables in the
spring cure the brute animals of any scab or foulness
which is upon their skins. It is reasonable to sup¬
pose that their effects would be as great upon the
human species, were they used in proper quantity
for a sufficient length of time.
I have sometimes seen good effects in scorbutic
complaints of very long standing, from the use of a
decoction of the roots of water-dock. It is usually
made by boiling a pound of the fresh root in six
English pints of water, till about one-third of it be
consumed. The dose is from half a pint to a whole
pint of the decoction every day. But in all the cases
where I have seen it prove beneficial, it was made
much stronger, and drunk in larger quantities. The
safest way, however, is for the patient to begin with
small doses, and increase them both in strength and
quantity as he finds his stomach will bear it. It
mnst be used for a considerable time. I have known
some take it for many months, and have been told
of others who had used it for several years, before
they were sensible of any benefit, but who never¬
theless were cured by it at length.
The leprosy, which was so common in this coun-