A dictionary of domestic medicine and household surgery / by Spencer Thomson.
- Thomson Spencer, -1886.
- Date:
- 1883
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of domestic medicine and household surgery / by Spencer Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
42/736 page 22
![ALO AM A strong peculiar odour of the oil will in most cases betray the accident. Refer to—Pntssic Acid. ALOPECIA.—See Baldness. ALVEOLUS.—The socket of a tooth. ALOES.—The inspissated juice of the cut leaf of the aloe, im]iorted into this country from the East and West Indies, and from the coasts of the Red Sea. It is one of the most useful and extensively used purgatives, is seldom given alone, and is scarcely employed domestically except in its combinations, par- ticularly in pills; indeed, there are few active aperient pills into the composition of which aloes does not enter. The action is certain, and, except in peculiar^ cases, easy and safe. In pregnancy, and where any tendency to piles exists, the use of aloes is better avoided. The action of the medicine upon the stomach is, in small doses, tonic; but the principal effect of aloes is upon the lower bowels, the movements of which it appears to excite, without increasing the dis- charges ; it seems to act similarly to the bile, and when that is deficient, as a substitute for it. The preparations into which aloes enters are generally better provided ready made. These are very numerous, and comprise the extract, pills composed either of the drug alone, or in combination with other drugs, the wine of aloes and the compound decoction. Of the pills, the simple aloetic, the compound rhubarb, and the compound colocyntk are the best; the last is the most active. Of any of these, one or two pills, three grains each, may be taken at bedtime as an average dose. The compound decoction of aloes is a most excellent form, and may safely be given when quick action is required, in one to two ounce doses. For old people it often answers well, and is prefer- able to pills. It is made as follows:—take of aloes two drachms, saffron and myrrh bruised, of each one drachm and a half, carbonate of potash one drachm, extract of liquorice one ounce, compound tincture of cardamoms eight ounces. Add sufficient water to _ reduce to thirty ounces after ten minutes' boiling. Dose, one or two ounces. Aloetic purgatives may be taken habitually for a long time without an increase of the dose being required; the con- tinued use, however, may induce piles. Refer to—Purgatives—Pills. ALTERATIVE is a rather indefinite term applied to certain medicines which are supposed to have the power of changing the varied dis- ordered actions of the body, without producing any sensible effect when taken. These embrace a large number of remedies having much variety of action, and their administration de- pends on the morbid or constitutional taint from which the person suffers. Those most employed are the mineral acids, the compounds of mercury and iodine, and a combination of rhubarb and soda in repeated small doses, which is perhaps the safest and simplest of all. 22 Sarsaparilla, dulcamara, and taraxacum are alteratives much in use, the action of which is not so well determined. There is, however, an alterative j)referable to medicine—obedi- ence to the laws of health. Temperance in eating and drinking, exercise, attention to the state of the skin, and to the ventilation of sleeping-rooms especially, are alteratives which every one may employ. A course of medicinal alteratives must be left to medical direction. ALUM is a compound salt of sulphuric acid, potash, and alumina. It is a powerful astrin- gent, and is used as such in medicine. In bleeding especially, as from the nose, lint dipped in a strong solution of alum, and applied to the part as a plug, will often stop the flow, or in the case of leechbites, the powder of burnt alum may be sprinkled upon the puncture. Internally, alum is given in cases of protracted diarrhoea, and in hismorrhage from the lungs or stomach, &c. In case of an individual being attacked either with coughing up, or vomiting of dark blood, in the absence of medical assist- ance, alum, which is generally easUy procurable^ may be given in doses of from five to twenty grains every two or three hours. In cases of that painful spasmodic affection of the bowels, named painter's colic, to which those who work much among lead are liable, alum has recently been found of much advantage, and might safely be given provisionally, by an improfessional hand, to ameliorate suffering— the dose from ten to twenty grains every three or four hours. Alum has also been found use- ful in the later stages of hooping-cough, in doses of three grains in honey or glycerine every three or four hours. As an astringent ■gargle in relaxed sore-throat, alum is most use- ful in the proportion of two drachms to half a pint of water. Alum may be given in pill, but better in solution, in distilled water flavom'ed with cinnamon, or some aromatic. Alum whey, made with five gi'ains of the salt to every ounce of milk, and the curd strained off, is a pleasant and convenient form—a tea-cupful to be taken three times a day. A few grains of alum, agitated with the white of an egg, forms a coagulum, which, put between two folds of muslin, is used with benefit to the bed-sores of the sick. Refer to—Hccmorrhage. ALVINE.—Connected with the belly—as alvine discharges, concretions, &c. AMAUROSIS, the GtUta serena of Milton, is total or partial blindness, depending upon disease of some portion of the nervous con- nexions of the eye. The retina, the brain, the connecting nerve, may any of them be the seat of the disease. The appearance of the eye is unaltered beyond the dilatation of the pupil, which gives it a peculiar dark, deep look, but the expression is immeaning. Persons who exercise the eyes much on minute objects, or who are much exposed to the glare of iutcns&](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21713650_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
