Mother's Remedies Part 172

Mutton Broth with Vegetables.--Allow one pound of neck of mutton to each pint of water; add carrots, turnips, onions, and barley; let all simmer together for three hours.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 657]

Mutton Broth Without Meat.--Cook two "shank-ends" in a pint of cold water, and vegetables as directed in the foregoing recipe; simmer for three hours and strain.

Beef Tea.--Cut up a pound of lean beef into pieces the size of dice; put it into a covered jar with two pints of cold water and a pinch of salt.

Let it warm gradually and simmer for two hours, care being taken that it does not at any time reach the boiling point.

Beef Tea with Oatmeal.--Mix thoroughly one tablespoonful of groats with two of cold water; add to this a pint of boiling beef tea. Boil for ten minutes, stirring constantly, and strain through a coa.r.s.e sieve.

Beef Juice.--Broil quickly pieces of the round or sirloin of a size to fit the opening of a lemon squeezer. Both sides of the beef should be scorched quickly to prevent the escape of the juices, but the interior should not be fully cooked. As soon as they are ready pieces of meat should be squeezed in a lemon squeezer previously heated by being dipped in hot water. As it drips the juice should be received into a hot wine gla.s.s; it should be seasoned to the taste with salt and a little cayenne pepper, and taken while hot.

Cold Beef Juice.--Cover one pound of finely chopped lean beef with eight ounces of cold water and allow it to stand for eight or ten hours. Squeeze out the juice by means of a muslin bag; season with salt or sherry wine and drink cold or slightly warmed. It may be added to milk, care being taken that the milk be not too hot before the juice is added.

Raw Meat Juice.--Add to finely minced rump steak cold water, in the proportion of one part of water to four parts of meat. Stir well together and allow it to stand for half an hour. Forcibly express the juice through muslin, twisting it to get the best results.

Beef Essence.--Chop up very fine a pound of lean beef free from fat and skin; add a little salt, and put into an earthen jar with a lid; fasten up the edges with a thick paste, such as is used for roasting venison in, and place the jar in the oven for three or four hours. Strain through a coa.r.s.e sieve, and give the patient two or three tablespoonfuls at a time.

American Bouillon (American Broth).--Place in a tin vessel that can be sealed hermetically alternate layers of finely minced meat and vegetables.

Seal it and keep it heated in a water bath (bainmaire) for six or seven hours and then express the broth.

Bottle Bouillon.--Cut beef, free from fat, into squares. Place these in a stoppered bottle, put the bottle in a basin of warm water, heat slowly, and boil for twenty minutes. There will be about an ounce of yellowish or brownish fluid for each three-quarters of a pound of meat used. The flavor is that of concentrated bouillon.

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Methods of preparing raw beef.--Meat given raw should always be perfectly fresh and very finely divided. Sc.r.a.pe the meat with a sharp knife, which will separate the coa.r.s.er fibers. If the resulting ma.s.s is stringy pa.s.s through a fine sieve. This may be seasoned with salt and pepper and served on toast, crackers or bread and b.u.t.ter. It may be rolled into small b.a.l.l.s and swallowed. These may be flavored as desired. They may also be slightly browned by rolling about rapidly in a hot saucepan, care being taken not to change any but the outside of the ball, and that but slightly. Sc.r.a.ped beef may be served as a liquid or semi-solid food. Mix it with an equal quant.i.ty of cold water until it is quite smooth. Place in a double boiler and cook until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Add a little salt and pepper and serve at once. This may be made thicker by adding less water.

Raw-beef Soup.--This is made by chopping up one pound of raw beef and placing it in a bottle with one pint of water and five drops of strong hydrochloric acid. This mixture is allowed to stand on the ice over night and in the morning the bottle is placed in a pan of water at 110 degrees and kept at about this temperature for two hours. It is then placed in a stout cloth and strained until the ma.s.s that remains is almost dry. The filtrate is given in three portions daily. If the taste of the raw meat is objectionable, the meat may quickly be roasted on one side and the process completed in the manner previously described.

Barley Gruel with Beef Extract.--One-half teaspoonful of "Soluble Beef,"

two cupfuls of hot water, one tablespoonful of barley flour, one saltspoonful of salt. Dissolve the beef in the hot water, and mix the flour and salt together with a little cold water. Pour the boiling stock on the flour and cook for ten minutes. Strain, and serve very hot.

Beef Broth with Poached Eggs.--Prepare the broth in the proportion of half a teaspoonful of "Soluble Beef" to one cupful of hot water and add a poached egg.

A Nutritive Drink for Delicate Women and Children.--This is made by mixing one-fourth to one-half teaspoonful of "Soluble Beef," five ounces of boiling water and one-half ounce of cream; season with salt and pepper to suit the taste.

Beef Broth with Grain.--Take one teaspoonful of "Soluble Beef," one quart of water, one tablespoonful of rice, and salt to taste. Dissolve the "Soluble Beef" in the hot water and add the well-washed rice. Simmer slowly until dissolved and absorbed by the rice, adding more beef broth if too much boils away. If not entirely dissolved the broth should be strained before using.

Beef Tea Egg-Nog.--This requires one-eighth teaspoonful of "Soluble Beef,"

one-half cupful of hot water, one tablespoonful of brandy, and a pinch of salt. Beat the egg slightly and add the salt and sugar. Dissolve the "Soluble Beef" in the hot water, add to the egg and strain. Mix thoroughly, adding wine, and serve.

[NURSING DEPARTMENT 659]

Chicken Jelly.--Half a grown chicken should be well pounded, and boiled in one quart of water for two hours until only a pint remains; season and strain. Serve hot or place on ice, where it will jelly.

Veal-bone Jelly.--Place ten pounds of veal bones and ten quarts of water or weak bouillon over the fire and bring to just a boil. Skim and add two pounds of barley and a little salt. Simmer for five or six hours and then strain. If too thick dilute, before serving, with bouillon. Stir in the yolk of an egg in a cup and serve.

Meat Jelly.--This is made by cooking good boneless, lean beef on a water bath with a little water for sixteen hours or until it becomes gelatinized. Of the artificial preparations on the market for making bouillon the most reliable is Leibig's Extract of Meat (10:250 gm.) or Cibil's Bouillon (one teaspoonfnl to 250 gm.), Inaglio's Bouillon Capsules are also very convenient. If it is desired to make a bouillon more nutritious one teaspoonful of meat peptone may be added.

Jelly for Dyspeptics.--Remove the skin and meat from one calf 's foot; wash the bone and place in cold water on the stove; when it begins to foam skim off the refuse which gathers on top. After rinsing off the sc.u.m with cold water put the bones into a pot with one-quarter kilo of beef or half an old hen, one-quarter liter of water, and little salt, and boil slowly for from four to five hours. Pour the jelly thus formed through a fine sieve and place overnight in a cellar. Next morning remove the fat and clarify the cold jelly by adding one egg with its sh.e.l.ls mashed, beating and stirring steadily. Then, with the addition of a little cornstarch, subject the whole to a temperature not over 60 degrees F., or the white of the egg will curdle. Constantly beat and stir. If the jelly begins to get grainy, cover and let it cool until the white of the egg becomes flaky and separates. Then strain again several times until it becomes perfectly clear; add 5 gm. of extract of meat, pour the jelly into a mold, and let it cool again. The gravy from a roast may be utilized and is very palatable. It must be stirred in while the ma.s.s is still warm and liquid.

This jelly is usually relished with cold fowl, but spoils easily in summer; it must therefore be kept on ice.

Gluten Bread.--Mix one pound of gluten flour with three-fourth of a pint or one pint of water at 85 degrees. (With some of the prepared flours--Bishop's, for example--no yeast is required). As soon as the dough is mixed put it into tins and place them immediately in the oven; should be made into small dinner rolls and baked on flat tins. The loaves take about one and one-half hours to bake, and the rolls three-fourths of an hour. Either are easily made. The addition of a little salt improves the bread. (When any special brand of flour is used, the directions that accompany it should be followed closely).

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A GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FOUR LEADING SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE: ALLOPATHY, HOMEOPATHY, OSTEOPATHY AND ECLECTICISM.

ALLOPATHY.--Literally the word Allopathy means "other suffering," from the Greek "allos" meaning other, and "pathos" meaning suffering. A more liberal translation would be,--other methods of treating suffering. The term was first used during the latter part of the eighteenth century by Hahnemann, the founder of the Homeopathic School, to distinguish the ordinary or regular practice of medicine as opposed to Homeopathy.

Notwithstanding the comparatively recent origin of the term, however, the methods and theories of Allopathy are based empirically upon the results of the practice of medicine since the time of Galen, and logically upon the scientific facts disclosed by modern research and study. In its broad and popular sense, Allopathy is the preservation of health and the treatment of disease by the use of any means that will produce a condition incompatible with the disease.

The application of the theories and methods of this "old school"

necessitates a thorough knowledge of anatomy, pharmocology, pathology, bacteriology, physiology and other sciences. At the present time much stress is also laid upon the means for the prevention and the eradication of diseases and their causes. The inefficiency of drugs is recognized and besides the articles of the Materia Medica the "regular" physician makes use of ant.i.toxins, vaccines, surgery, electricity, baths, etc., in treating diseases. Everyday examples of their methods may be seen in the use of quinine in Malaria, ant.i.toxins in Diphtheria and vaccines in Smallpox, etc.

HOMEOPATHY.--This school was founded by Hahnemann, who lived in Germany over a hundred years ago. Everyone now admits that he was a great scholar.

In translating a materia medica he was very much struck with the article on cinchona, where it seemed to state that taken continuously in large doses it would produce all the indications of ague. He tested other remedies in the same way and finally announced his law "Similia Similibus Curantur."

Definition given by a Medical Dictionary of Homeopathy.--"A system of treatment of disease by the use of agents that, administered in health, would produce symptoms similar to those for the relief of which they are given." For instance, ipecac given in large doses, will produce certain kind of vomiting. If the same kind of vomiting, with the other symptoms agreeing, occurs in disease ipecac would be given for the trouble.

[LEADING SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE 661]

But if the vomiting was produced by ipecac, that same medicine would not be given to stop it, but treatment given for an over dose of the drug, ipecac. According to the principles of Homeopathy a medicine is selected which possesses the power (drug diseases) of extinguis.h.i.+ng a natural disease by means of the similitude of its alterative qualities, (similia similibus curantur); such a medicine administered in simple form at long intervals, and in doses so fine as to be just sufficient without causing pain or debility, to obliterate the natural disease through the reaction of vital energy.

A great many medicines are used in this way by all schools, but the "regular" school claims it is not an universal law. Some homeopathic doctors claim that the ant.i.toxin treatment for diphtheria, etc. is an application of the homeopathic law. The poison that produces the diphtheria is taken and from this by a thorough and precise process the serum is made and injected into the body of a person who has diphtheria.

Hydrophobia is successfully treated in the same way. A homeopathic doctor has a right to use any sized doses he wishes, but he claims experience has proven that large doses are not often necessary and that the medicine usually acts better attenuated.

ECLECTICISM.--An eclectic physician is a member of a school or system that claims to select "that which is good from all other schools."

This school uses very few mineral remedies, but uses many vegetable remedies. They have introduced a great many vegetable remedies into medical practice and very many of them are useful.

The homeopathic school has benefited very much by the experience of the eclectic system. This school uses remedies in large and small doses. Many of them use the homeopathic attenuated drugs.

OSTEOPATHY.--"The name 'Osteopathy' is made up of two Greek words: 'Osteon,' which means 'bone,' and 'pathos,' which means suffering (to suffer). 'Pathy,' our English equivalent for this word, by usage has come to mean "a system of treatment for suffering or disease. Hence, viewed strictly from its derivation, this term, Osteopathy, would carry only the meaning of bone suffering, 'bone disease' or 'bone treatment.'"

Definition.--"Osteopathy is that science of treating human ailments which regards most diseases as being either primarily produced or maintained by an obstruction to the free pa.s.sage of nerve impulses or blood and lymph flow, and undertakes by manipulation to remove such obstruction so that nature may resume her perfect work."

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Explanation.--"While it is a distinctive theory of osteopathy that disease conditions, not due to a specific poison, are traceable to mechanical disorder in the body, or some part of it, and that the correction of such disorder is not only the rational treatment, but is necessary to the restoration of a permanent condition of health, yet as a palliative treatment appropriate manipulations are occasionally employed to stimulate or inhibit functional activity as conditions may require. Osteopaths also employ such rational hygienic measures, common to all systems of healing, as has been proven of undoubted value, and take into account environmental influences, habits and modes of life, as affecting the body in maintaining or regaining health."

The "American School of Osteopathy" is located in Kirksville, Missouri.