Mother's Remedies Part 14

FOUL SWEATING. (Bromidrosis). Symptoms.--The odor may be very disagreeable, or resemble the odor of certain flavors or fruits. It is generally found in the arm-pit and genital organs.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Offensive Sweating, Alum Water for.--"A wash made with a teaspoonful of alum and a quart of water will prevent offensive sweating. We all know how disagreeable it is to sit near a person in a street car or any crowded place, who has an odor of perspiration about them, How easy it would be to use this wash and rid yourself of this difficulty,"

2. Sweaty Feet, Borax and Alcohol for.--"Dissolve a tablespoonful of powdered borax in half a pint of diluted alcohol (half alcohol, half water) and rub the feet at night, You will find this a splendid remedy."

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3. Sweating, Simple Home Remedy to Produce.--"Place a rubber sheet or blanket under the patient. Have a simple blanket soaking in hot water and when all is ready, wring blanket as dry as possible and wrap about the patient up to the neck. After this a dry blanket is wrapped around the patient. Care should be taken not to have the blanket hot enough to burn the patient, but not too cool. After a few minutes the patient is taken out, rubbed dry gently and left to rest and sleep." This treatment will be found very beneficial and inexpensive.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Foul Sweating.--Frequent bathing, dressing powders of boric and salicylic acids, etc.

1. Salicylic Acid 1/2 ounce Powdered Starch 1/2 ounce

Mix and dust on the parts.

2. Boric acid powdered may also be used.

3. Powdered Boric Acid and Salicylic Acid; Equal parts.

To be used as a dusting powder on the sweating parts.

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3. One per cent solution of pota.s.sium permanganate or permanganate of potash is good applied to the parts.

CALLOSITY or Callositas.--This is circ.u.mscribed yellowish-white, thickened and h.o.r.n.y patches of one of the layers of the cuticle (epidermis).

Causes--They come as the result of the occupation or pressure, and sometimes without any seeming cause.

Symptoms.--They occur mostly on the hands and feet and are usually sensitive.

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT, for Callosity or Callositas.--Remove the cause of the h.o.r.n.y ma.s.ses. The latter is done by soaking them with prolonged hot water baths and sc.r.a.ping off the ma.s.s afterwards. This should be continued and done frequently.

Salicylic Acid 30 grains Collodion 4 ounce

Mix and apply with a camel's hair pencil.

CORNS. (Calvus).--A small, flat, deep-seated, h.o.r.n.y growth, mostly on or between the toes.

Cause.--Usually the result of too tight or too loose shoes. Due to pressure and rubbing.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES.--Corns, one of the Surest Remedies.--"Take salicylic acid, make a thick paste with flour, put on absorbent cotton and apply, leaving same on several days; soak well and corn will come out." This is a thoroughly tried remedy and a good one. This is about as good a cure as there is for corns. After this paste has been on the corn for three days, it should be removed and the feet soaked well, and the corn sc.r.a.ped off.

2. Corns, Turpentine and Kerosene for.--"A very simple remedy is to apply turpentine or kerosene oil to the affected part on going to bed." It is always a good plan to soak the feet well before treating the corn, as the turpentine will penetrate more quickly.

3. Corns, to Remove Without Pain.--

"Alcohol 1/2 ounce Muriatic Acid 1 dram Nitric Acid 1 dram Oil of Rosemary 1 dram Chloroform 2 drams Tincture Iron 2 drams

Mix the above, and apply freely to the corn with little brush or feather until it can be removed with thumb lance. It may require several applications."

4. Corns, Onion a Cure for.--"Soak a small onion in vinegar four hours, then cut in two and bind on the corn at night. In the morning (if the onion has remained over the corn) the soreness will be gone and you can pick out the core. If not cured in first application repeat."

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5. Corns, Castile Soap an Effective Remedy for.--"Rub the corn night and morning with castile soap, as often as possible shave it, being careful not to cut deep enough to make it bleed." Be faithful in soaping it thoroughly night and morning for several days until it disappears. This is a very simple but effective remedy.

6. Hard Corns, Iodine a Successful Remedy for.--"Paint the corns with iodine every night for three nights, stop three nights, then apply three nights again, and so on for two weeks." Have tried this and know it to be very successful, especially good for hard corns.

7. Corns, Castor Oil for.--"Apply castor oil; rub it thoroughly, then soak feet. It will soften and remove corns."

8. Corns, Vinegar and Bread for.--"Take bread and soak in vinegar for twenty-four hours, put a plaster on for three or four nights. If not cured on first application, repeat."

PHYSICIANS' TREATMENT for Corns.--Remove the cause; soften them by prolonged soaking in hot water, and then gently sc.r.a.pe off the softened particles, continue this for several days; then put a narrow strip of rubber or salicylated plaster (adhesive plaster) over to protect them from pressure. The following is good to soften them:

1. Salicylic Acid 1-1/2 dram Extract of Cannabis indica 10 grains Collodion 1 ounce

Mix and paint on the corn for several days and after soaking corn sc.r.a.pe it off with a sharp knife.

2. A Good but Weaker Remedy:-

Salicylic Acid 30 grains Extract of Cannabis indica 5 to 10 grains Collodion 1/2 ounce

Both of these prescriptions are good, the first being stronger with salicylic acid.

3. When the corns are soft with inflammation, wash and dry the foot and apply a solution of nitrate of silver, sixty to one hundred and twenty grains to the ounce of water, to every part every four or five days.

Ulcerating Corns.--Cauterize with nitrate of silver in stick form.

CARBUNCLE. (Anthrax).--A carbuncle is an acute circ.u.mscribed inflammation of the skin and tissues beneath, of the size of an egg, orange, or larger.

It is a hard ma.s.s and ends in local death of some of the tissue and formation of pus, which empties upon the surface through several sieve-like openings.

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Symptoms.--There is a feeling of general sickness, chilliness and some fever. The skin over the sore part is hot and painful. The several dead parts may run together until the entire ma.s.s separates in a slough. In favorable cases it proceeds to heal kindly, but in severe cases it may spread to the surrounding tissues and end fatally, sometimes by the absorption of putrid materials, or by the resulting weakness. It runs usually from two to five weeks.

Causes.--It comes in middle or advanced life, usually oftener in men than in women. It occurs frequently in patients suffering from diabetes, in whom it is usually fatal.

MOTHERS' REMEDIES. Carbuncles, Poppy Leaves to Draw and Ripen.--"A poultice of poppy leaves is very efficacious to draw or ripen a carbuncle." A poultice made from these leaves is very quieting and soothing, and at the same time will cause the carbuncle to ripen.

2. Carbuncle, Slippery Elm and Sa.s.safras Root for.--"Sa.s.safras root and slippery elm bark boiled together and the decoction thickened with cornmeal." This should be changed as often as it becomes cool.

3. Carbuncle, Sheep Sorrel Poultice for.--"Gather a bunch of sheep sorrel leaves, wrap them in a cabbage leaf and roast in the oven. Apply to the carbuncle, and it will soon ripen and break."

4. Carbuncle, Bread and Milk Poultice for.--"Keep warm bread and milk poultice on until the core comes out, then put on salve or vaselin and keep covered until all healed."

5. Carbuncle, the Common Scabious for.--"Take scabious, the green herb and bruise it. Apply this to the affected part. This has been found a very effectual remedy." The common field scabious have many hairy, soft, whitish green leaves, some of which are very small and rough on the edges, others have hairy green leaves deeply and finely divided and branched a little. Flowers size of small walnut and composed of many little ones.

Sometimes called "Morning Bride," "Devil's Bit," etc.