ir magical
effect can conceive how powerful they are. We have seen a patient on
the point of giving in and lying down as a helpless invalid made
perfectly fit for work in less than an hour by this mode of treatment.
Where the trouble has passed into that stage where the patient is much
weakened, in addition to this the ARMCHAIR FOMENTATION (_see_) should
be employed; or if the patient be too weak, the fomentation may be
properly wrapped round him in bed without rising. If the patient be too
weak for wrapping round the body, he may be first wrapped round the
legs, and so strengthened as to stand the stronger remedy. Olive oil
must be rubbed on the skin before and after fomenting. The heat may be
kept up for an hour. If too weak to stand even this, the feet and legs
may be first fomented, and afterwards the body. This treatment has
saved many cases from disaster. _See also_ British Cholera; Diarrhoea.
Dyspepsia.--_See_ Indigestion.
Earache.--In the common form this is purely neuralgic. The nerves are
in shape and distribution like some tender plant, the root in the brain
or spinal cord, and the ends of the branches in the organs supplied by
them with nerve power. They are best affected, and most easily cured,
by applications to the root rather than the branch ends. This is
greatly the case with earache, which is a trouble of the nerves of the
ear--not those of hearing, but the ordinary nerves supplying the part.
The remedy is to press cold cloths on the _back of the head and neck_.
This will often give instant relief. It is best done when the patient
is thoroughly warm. If he be cold and clammy in feeling, the feet and
legs must be well fomented before applying the cooling. Rub all parts
treated with warm olive oil when the treatment is finished.
Ears, Running.--In this trouble there is indicated a failure somewhere
of the clearance of waste from the body. This matter gathers locally in
the ear, where suppuration and discharge take place. A cure must not be
directed to the ear alone, but first the general waste-removing system
should be stimulated with special reference to its service in the ear.
Rubbing the back with hot olive oil and gentle pressure for a long
time, say forty minutes daily, will go further to cure the ears than
anything which can be done to themselves. Gatherings, by this
treatment, are often quickly dissolved and dispersed.
Where actual waste matter runs out of the ear, the treatment is
|