Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million: Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts
John Stuart Mill · en
During the first three or four weeks, keep the child or patient in an
uniform degree of temperature; if possible, never below 64 degrees of
Fahrenheit's scale. The diet should be light, chiefly bread, milk,
and vegetables with butter. Rice or Indian puddings, with plenty of
molasses, are good food for children in this disease. If the cough is
very violent, and the phlegm hard in the throat, a gentle emetic of
ipecacuanha, or some preparation of antimony, should be given every
second or third morning, to clear the stomach from the mucus which,
in this cough, is constantly secreted. By these means, the violence
of the disease will soon be overcome; whereas, by an exposure to cold
air, and neglecting all precautions, you may aggravate and continue
the cough for months. In the summer, change of air is one of the best
remedies; and be sure to avoid whatever has a tendency to irritate
the throat, or excite the action of the heart. In this, as in every
other disease, the state of the bowels should be carefully attended
to. A mild aperient is sometimes necessary.
860. _Colds._--The best _preventive_ of colds, is to wash your
children every day thoroughly in cold water, if they are strong
enough to bear it; if not, add a little warm water, and rub the skin
dry. This keeps the pores open. If they do take cold, give them a
warm bath as soon as possible; if that is not convenient, bathe the
feet and hands, and wash the body all over in warm water; then give a
cup of warm tea, and cover the patient in bed.
861.--If a _Sore Throat_ follow, take a tumbler of molasses and
water, half-and-half, when going to bed; and rub the throat with a
mixture of sweet or goose-oil and spirits of turpentine; then wear
flannel round it.
862. _Canker, or Sore Month._--Steep blackberry-leaves, sweeten with
honey, sprinkle in a little burnt alum, and wash the mouth often with
this decoction.
863. _Cutaneous Eruptions in Children._--Children, while on the
breast, are seldom free from eruptions of one kind or other. These,
however, are not often dangerous, and ought never to be dried up
but with the greatest caution. They tend to free the bodies of
infants from hurtful humors, which, if retained, might produce fatal
disorders. The eruptions of children are chiefly owing to improper
food and neglect of cleanliness. If a child be stuffed at all hours
with food that its stomach is not able to digest, such food not
being properly assimilated, instead of nourishing the body, fills it
with gross humors. These must either break out in form of eruptions
upon the skin, or remain in the body, and occasion fevers and other
internal disorders.