Part 78

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. Scrape the meat with a sharp knife, which will separate the coarser fibers. If the resulting mass is stringy pass through a fine sieve. This may be seasoned with salt and pepper and served on toast, crackers or bread and butter. It may be rolled into small balls 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. Scraped beef may be served as a liquid or semi-solid food. Mix it with an equal quantity 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 mass 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.

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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 scum 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 shells 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 mass 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 antitoxins, vaccines, surgery, electricity, baths, etc., in treating diseases. Everyday examples of their methods may be seen in the use of quinine in Malaria, antitoxins 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.

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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 extinguishing 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 antitoxin 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 passage 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.

The course of study required is of three years duration, of nine months each, and the degree of D. O. (Doctor of Osteopathy) is given to the graduates.

OPERATIONS.

There has been a great change in regard to operations among the laity of late years. There is much less opposition and prejudice. The people are being educated to the necessity for operating in many diseases. A great deal of the opposition was due to the doctors themselves. There have been doctors who would operate at every opportunity. Some doctors could not treat a woman for diseases of the womb and ovaries without suggesting that an operation was necessary. There have been a great many healthy organs removed, or at least organs that could have been saved by proper treatment. Fortunately such doctors are becoming less in number and there is more discrimination being used. On the other hand there has also been too much conservatism. Many persons have spent years in suffering who could have been relieved by an operation. Years ago a person suffering from terrific attacks of gall stone colic continued to suffer all their natural life. Now an operation is performed and relief is obtained at very little risk to life. The same is true of cancers, tumors, etc. These, if taken early, can be removed safely and successfully in very many cases and lives saved and suffering relieved.

If an operation is needed the family should go to their family physician, in whom they have confidence. He can do the operation or direct the family as to what surgeon to choose. Bad results of operations are, sometimes, due to the operator. It is the duty of the family to choose a competent and honest surgeon. There are plenty of them all over the world,--and very few competent surgeons operate simply for the money they receive. As a rule they earn all and more than they are paid. There are more surgeons today than ever and they are also more competent, for our medical schools prepare them in the hospitals for that kind of work.

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The surgeons connected with our hospitals, public and private, are doing a great work in relieving the ills of humanity, others in private practice are doing great work. Here and there one is found who operates only for the money, but persons who employ such a doctor are usually entitled to the results they receive. Your family physician, even if he is not a surgeon, is the best person to consult when an operation may be necessary. He will send you to some honest and competent man. Operations usually should be performed as early as possible. In malignant disease the operation must be done early. This applies to cancers of the lip, face, tongue, breast, womb, ovaries, stomach and the abdominal cavity.

Then again, operations are far less dangerous now than before the days of aseptic and antiseptic surgery. Cleanliness on the part of the surgeon, nurses and patient is the first law of success in all operations. Any case that becomes infected through fault of the surgeon or attendants is no longer looked upon as a thoroughly successful operation, even though the patient recovers.

As in other branches of medicine, there are now many specialists in surgery. In the major operations it is best to employ a specialist, but in the minor cases the "family doctor" should be competent. If he does not care to perform the operation himself he can advise and direct you in selecting a competent surgeon. Always seek his advice early; do not wait until the patient is weak or dying before you decide to allow the operation, as then the chances are it cannot help. If you are in doubt as to the necessity of the operation consult more than one surgeon. There is a possibility of a wrong diagnosis in some cases.

SPECIAL OPERATIONS.

ADENOIDS.--Should be removed early when they obstruct the breathing. In another part of the book the reasons are given. The same advice is given for tumors and malformations in the nose passages. Such conditions should not be allowed to go on until the parts are permanently deformed or diseased. These operations are done very frequently and successfully now, and many people are saved years of worry and suffering. For more extended account see department of nose and throat.

APPENDICITIS.--There has been a great deal of discussion about this disease. It is no doubt true that many healthy appendices have been removed, but it is also true that many lives have been saved by operation. There is more discrimination now than formerly in this disease. Blood tests, etc., aid in telling when an operation is necessary in acute cases. There is very little danger in a chronic case if the operation is done during the interval of the attacks.

CATARACT.--The operation for this trouble is gloriously successful and the blind are daily recovering their sight through this operation.

MASTOID.--Operations on the Mastoid cells are frequently performed now and save many lives. When there is swelling behind the ear or there is much pain there a careful examination should be made. Chronic cases of Mastoid disease usually demand this operation.

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OVARIES, TUMORS OF THE.--The operation for tumors is very successful. If the ovary is simply enlarged by congestion, medicine will frequently reduce it; but when the enlargement is due to a tumor, it should be removed if it continues to enlarge. Sometimes there is cancer of the ovary. If so, it should be operated upon early. Tumors of the womb, such as fibroids, are often observed. They sometimes require removal if they grow large. The symptoms will indicate when an operation is needed. These tumors often grow so large as to necessitate the removal of the womb.

PERINEUM AND CERVIX.--The perineum and cervix are sometimes torn during labor and should be immediately repaired. The perineum is the support for the organs of generation and if it is not solid the ovaries, tubes, womb and vagina will sag and fall. Neglect of this simple operation at the proper time results in backaches, headaches, etc. Many women have suffered for years and doctored for other complaints when proper attention to the real trouble would have saved all that expense and pain. Your physician should be requested, in advance, to attend before he leaves to any laceration that may occur during labor. At this time it causes little or no pain. If postponed until next day or later it would be painful and require an anesthetic. Many cases of cancer are caused by neglected lacerations.

PILES.--It is often necessary to operate both for external and internal piles. The result is usually complete relief and cure.

CANCERS.--Cancers should be operated on early. A sore on the womb, lip or tongue, or lump on the breast that continues for a little time without getting better, is dangerous. It may soon spread in the surrounding tissue and general system. Operations on the womb and breast, performed in time, are very successful. Such tumors or sores should not be neglected. A lump in the breast should be examined early. The womb should be examined if there is a discharge from the vagina that continues. In such a case the family doctor can determine what should be done. A sore on the lip, tongue, face, etc., that continues and refuses to heal should cause suspicion and be shown to a physician.

PLEURISY.--"Water in the chest" sometimes follows pleurisy. This, if not absorbed, must be drawn off and is quite easily done. After some cases of pneumonia the lung does not clear up properly and pus forms in it. An operation is sometimes necessary to evacuate it. This should be performed before the patient becomes very much exhausted. Some people allow it to continue too long and thus lessen the chances of recovery when an operation is at last performed.

SQUINT.--There is no need for any person being cross-eyed if attention is early given to the trouble. Sometimes properly fitted glasses will correct this trouble, but an operation is often necessary and is very successful and not serious or painful.

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TRACHEOTOMY AND INTUBATION.--The operation of tracheotomy, opening of the wind-pipe, is performed where there is choking from a foreign body in the wind-pipe or when it has become suddenly closed in diseases such as croup and diphtheria. It is always an emergency operation and is only resorted to when it is evident that unless severe measures are taken the patient will choke to death. Intubation is more frequently practised in disease when the breathing has become difficult owing to the growth of membrane in the larynx. A tube of the proper size is placed in the wind-pipe and allowed to remain there until the disease has lost its force and the membrane no longer obstructs the air passage. This tube allows the patient to breathe freely as it furnishes an opening for the air and an attendant notices the change immediately. Intubation should be performed before the patient has become weak.

TONSILS.--A person who is subject to enlarged tonsils should watch them carefully. If they contain pus for any length of time they should be removed, for they not only obstruct the breathing, but are a menace to the health. Enucleation is usually the best method of removal. Enucleation means the operation of extracting a tumor in entirety after opening its sac, but without further cutting. Removal of the tonsils is a simple operation, usually not requiring the use of anesthetics and most physicians advise the removal of an enlarged or troublesome tonsil.

CALCULI OR STONES.--Calculi or stones are removed from the gall bladder, gall ducts, kidneys, ureter and bladder by operations, when it has been ascertained that the patient cannot "pass them." Many physicians prefer to locate the calculus by use of the X-rays before deciding to operate, and there can be no doubt as to the wisdom of this. In these, as in all operations, success depends largely upon the general condition of the patient. They are not considered dangerous operations, but the final decision as to their necessity should rest, in each case, with a competent physician or surgeon.

KIDNEYS, STOMACH, PROSTATE, ETC.--Little can be said in this brief paragraph concerning the many operations that are now performed upon the different organs. What applies to one applies, in general, to all. Operations are now performed, and successfully, for pus in the kidney, floating kidney, etc. Ulcers and cancers are removed from the stomach and reproductive organs. In some cases it has been necessary to remove the organs in their entirety. Pieces of the intestines have been removed with gratifying results in cases of ulcers and injuries. Enlarged prostate nearly always necessitates an operation before relief can be expected. It is impossible here to say much concerning the chances for recovery in each individual case, since they are decided by the strength and temperament of the patient, the care and skill of the surgeon and nurses, and whether the patient has submitted to the operation soon enough in the course of the disease. Let it suffice here to say that the majority of the above-mentioned operations are successful and result in the relief and often the complete recovery of the patient.

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THE HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS.