The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AGUE, TREATMENT OP Ague Is a very curable disease, and In the United Kingdom at least very simple measures may be taken. At the beginning of the actual fit, the patient should be placed in bed between the blankets, and partake freely of warm, diluted, but not stimulating drinks, as water-gruel, barley-water, etc. ; and twenty drops of laudanum may be given in a little cinnamon water. In some cases the laudanum is most useful when given directly the cold fit is felt to be approaching ; in others, after the onset of the hot fit. One scruple of the subcar- bonate of ammonia, with eight grains of the compound powder of ipecacuanha,and an ounce and a half of peppermint water, form a draught of much service in moderating the attack, when given on the invasion of the cold fit. There is no occasion to be over-fussy during a paroxysm, as the patient will come out of it all right. Of all remedies none is more valuable than quinine and arsenic in the treatment of ague. Quinine is an alkaloid obtained from various species of bark growing in Peru and on the slopes of the Andes ; other alkaloids, as cinchonine, cin- chonidine, and quinidine, are also present in the bark, and exercise a beneficial effect. Given in large doses quinine is apt to produce giddiness, singing in the ears, and deafness, but these effects will pass away in time. Four or five grains of the sulphate of qui- nine taken every four or six hours during the interval of an ague fit will generally cure the patient. Very often the cure is immediate, and the patient has no more at- tacks : more often he has one or two very slight ones, and then be- comes convalescent. In hot coun- tries larger doses may be required, and for travellers in aguish districts nothing is more valuable than a plentiful stock of quinine. If a relapse take place, quinine or cin- chonine must again be resorted to. Sometimes quinine is disliked, and then arsenic may be tried, but it is very poisonous, and must only be given under medical advice ; the injurious effects that should be looked for are soreness of the throat, vomiting, diarrhoea, pains in the abdomen, sweating, and redness of the eyes and nose. AIR, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF Air is a mechanical mixture of oxygen (the life-giving principle of nature) and nitrogen, an inert gas apparently added merely to dilute the more active and more stimulating ingredient. In pure air the nitrogen forms by bulk nearly 79 per cent., and the oxygen 21 per cent. ; but, as ordinarily found, there are be- sides from three to six parts in the ten thousand (-03 to *06 of 1 per cent.) of carbonic acid, with traces of watery vapour and of ammonia. In 100 parts of pure air there are— Oxygen 20-99 parts Nitrogen 78-97 ,, Carbonic acid .... -04 „ Watery vapour 'j Ammonia . f . . . traces. Ozone ' AIR FROM LUNGS, IMPURITY OF The proof that carbonic acid is given off by the lungs and rejected in once-breathed air is very simple, and can be obtained by any one in a few minutes. This test only re- quires a small glass tube, eight or ten inches long, and half a pint of lime water, easily made by slaking a lump of lime about the size of a walnut in a quart or so of hydrant- water. All you have to do is to dip
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