Chapter 12
In curing the trouble, regard must be had to the cause, which is usually a general failure of strength from overwork, worry, or some other disease. If a cure is to be effected, _rest_ of mind and body is necessary, and must be secured at any possible cost. For local application, the sore parts are thickly dusted with fine fresh flour, and covered with soft wadding or surgeon's lint. The air is excluded, and all is kept _strictly dry_. A waterproof covering over the lint will help this, but is not absolutely necessary.
But, now, is there nothing that can be done to quicken that inner action, the slowness of which has paved the way for all this mischief? This might be done in two ways. After the affected parts, say the face, have been secured in this pack of flour, it will be easy to place a hot blanket, soaked partly, but not at all _wet_, with boiling water, all round the head of the patient. As soon as the heat begins to enter the head, a sense of comfort will be experienced. Care must be taken to keep the _inner cloths dry_, and heat is best given by an india-rubber bag. When this cannot be had, however, the blanket may be used. At intervals, as the patient feels it desirable, this fomentation may be renewed. It will hasten recovery as well as arrest the spreading of the malady, while it will secure such recovery as will not readily dispose to a return of the evil. The feet and legs are likely to be cold. As the sufferer lies still in bed, but not when the other fomentation is on, these should be wrapped in a hot fomentation, allowed to lie in it for a good half-hour, taken out of it and dried, rubbed with warm olive oil, and covered with a pair of soft cotton stockings. If this treatment is at all well carried out, the feeling of comfort given will soon tell how it is working. Of course, if the feet and legs are the parts affected, the fomentation must be applied elsewhere, say on the back, or on the haunches.
Where erysipelas appears in connection with wounds or sores, the same treatment is to be pursued, as far as possible consistent with dressing the sores. These should be carefully cleansed, dusted with boric acid, and covered with a layer of wadding bandage. The limb should be raised to a horizontal position. Simple food should be given, and the sufferer kept quiet. In all cases of skin trouble, linen should be worn next the skin. _See_ Underwear.
Exercise.--Where this is advised medically, it is often taken in a manner far from wise. For weakly people seeking strength, exercise should never be pursued to the extent of fatigue. Up to a certain point it does good; beyond that, harm. The beginning of harm is indicated by the feeling of weariness. At the same time it must be remembered that what is felt as weariness may be merely laziness. This must be energetically combated. There is no royal road to health any more than to learning.
In some cases this disinclination for exercise may arise from too much or too rich food, and a more sparing diet may remove it. _See_ Appendix; Physical Culture.
When even walking is out of the question, a kind of exercise may be given by gently massaging the limbs while the patient is in bed. The back muscles should also be gently rubbed and kneaded, so as to cause them to move under the skin, without effort on the patient's part. But no fatigue must be caused. The amount may be gradually increased as the patient can stand it. _See_ Brain Exercise; Massage.
Exhaustion.--Often very serious trouble takes the form of simple overwhelming weariness. The patient's system has been wrought down till it can no longer respond even to stimulus, and life itself seems ebbing away. In such cases treat as for DEPRESSION (_see_) avoiding too energetic treatment, and gradually infusing new life by massage and fomenting.
Expectoration.--What is commonly called a "cough and spit" is sometimes due to some serious trouble of the lungs, and in all cases a doctor should be consulted at once. Often, however, it is due to the failure of the skin or other organs duly to carry off the waste of the body, which then accumulates in the air tubes. If we get a good revivifying treatment of the skin, such cough and spit will speedily be cured. A mild vapour bath, with thorough SOAPING (_see_ Soap) will usually be sufficient in a slight case.
Sometimes there is a sweating of the skin itself which does not cure expectoration, but which must itself be cured. That is the night or early morning sweating, which is very reducing. It is the insensible perspiration which is needed to remove the spit. Give one good sponging over the body with acetic acid; follow this the evening after with cayenne "tea," afterwards rubbing with warm olive oil. For two or three evenings repeat this treatment. There should then be a loosening of the phlegm, and a lessening of the flow through the lungs. The sufferer may be very weak, and yet these things may be so gently and kindly done, that no fatigue is experienced.
If above treatment does not cure, the SOAPY BLANKET (_see_) may be used once a week, with daily sponging with vinegar or weak acetic acid, and rubbing with warm olive oil. This should cure in a few weeks, where there is no real disease.
Eyes, Accidents to.--Three distinct classes of these are to be considered. They require very different treatment.
When the eyeball is cut or pierced, if the cut be deep or large, a surgeon must deal with it. But if small, a drop or two of castor oil let fall into the eye will often be all that is required. Where inflammation comes on, the tepid pouring recommended below for bad eyes will greatly help. If more severe, the treatment for inflamed eyes may be given. _Perfect rest_ and _thorough exclusion of light_ are very important.
If the eye is bruised, bathe with warm water, to which a little vinegar or boracic acid has been added. If after bathing, pain continues, drop in castor oil, and on the outside of the eyelid lay a pad dipped in a mixture of equal parts of laudanum and water. Change this cloth frequently until the pain is relieved.
Treat in this way also for insects stinging the eye.
When the eye is burned, either by sparks or by some burning chemical substance, cold cloths should be persistently applied to the eye. The softest rags or surgeon's lint should be cut up into small pieces that will just cover the eye. Dip these in the coldest water, and press it out a little, so that it will not run off. Place these little bits of wet cloth one after another on the eye or eyes affected. The patient will not be able to endure pressure further than the weight of the cloths themselves. These can be taken off and changed for cold ones as the feeling of the sufferer directs. After a time the cooling will be felt to have gone far enough, and the cloths may be allowed to lie; when they get too warm they can be taken off, or if the heat and pain return they can be renewed.
While this treatment is going on it will be necessary to open the eyelids at intervals, so as to let off the tears that collect in such cases and cause great distress. These will flow out when in the most gentle way you have laid one thumb on the upper eyebrow, and the other just below the lower eyelid, so that you can draw the lids just slightly open.
Eyes, Cataract on.--This disease has been arrested, and in earlier stages even cured, by the treatment described in, Eyes, failing sight. By means of this treatment we have seen a totally blind eye restored in a few weeks.
Eyes, Danger to Sight of.--Where inflammation has gone so far as to lead to suppuration, or even to ulceration of the eyes, there is grave danger of blindness, and this is often the case with infants and children who have been wrongly treated or neglected. In such a case, cease at once all irritating and painful treatment and drugs. First, wash the eyes by gently dropping over them distilled water, or boiled rain water which has been cooled. The water should be used about blood heat.
After an hour or so, have another warm bathing by means of gentle pouring over the eyes, but do not rub the eyelids. Let there be no friction beyond that of the soft and warm water running over the face in the bathing. Rather have patience till that washes all waste matter away than run any risk of irritating the eyeball. All this time watch what the sufferer evidently likes, and follow his likings--that is, as to warmer or colder water, and so on. It will not be very long before you have thoroughly cleaned the eyes, while at the same time you have infused fresh life into them. To the water used a little vinegar or acetic acid should next be added, or Condy's fluid may be used when it is convenient. But care must be taken that no great smarting is caused. _See_ Acetic Acid.
As the discharge from ulcerated eyes is very infectious, care should be taken not to communicate it to other persons' eyes. Strict cleanliness should be observed, and all rags employed should be burnt, and disinfectants used to cleanse the patient's and nurse's hands, etc. Towels should be boiled for half-an-hour before being washed, after they have been used in such a case.
Now a most important matter must be attended to. Castor oil is the most soothing that can be used with the eyes. Fresh olive oil comes next, but it is usually just as easy to get the one as the other. With a feather, or fine camel's-hair brush, and as gently as possible, cover the eyelids with this oil heated to about blood heat. Do not try to force it on the eyeballs, but if the lids open so much as to let it in, allow it to lubricate the eyeball also. Rub it gently over the eyebrows and all round the eyes, and dry it gently off. Cover the eyes then with a soft covering, and let them have perfect rest.
It sometimes happens that a tiny piece of dust or iron may stick in the surface of the eye, and refuse to be washed away by the tears. Take a square inch of writing paper, curve one of the sides of it, and draw it lightly and quickly over the spot. Never use any sharp instrument or pin. Repeat the operation a few times if unsuccessful.
Diet as recommended in article Eyes, Hazy Sight.
Eyes, Failing Sight.--This often comes as the result simply of an over-wearied body and mind, without any pain or accident whatever. It appears as an inability to see small distant objects, or to see at all in dusky twilight. The sight is also variable--good when the patient is not wearied, and bad when he is tired. When this comes on under thirty years of age, the eyes have almost certainly been overworked, and need rest. Rest from all reading and other work trying for the eyes is the best cure. If this can be had, it should be taken, with much outdoor exercise. Fresh air is a fine tonic for the eyes. Where total rest cannot be had, take as much as possible, and nurse the failing nerves as follows. Apply the bran poultice, as directed for inflamed eyes, just as long as it is felt to be comforting--with one patient it will be longer, with another shorter. Now there is a cooling of the brow and of the eyes themselves, which is as important almost as the heating of the back of the head. We always find, as a matter of fact, that a cold application opposed to a hot one produces a vastly better result that two hot ones opposed, or one hot one by itself alone. So we find in the case of the eyes. We have now, as we write these lines, eyes under our care that are mending every day by means of a bran poultice at the back of the head and neck, and a cold cloth changed on the brow and eyes. They do not mend anything like so well if heat alone is used. Rub the back of the head and neck with hot olive oil before and after poulticing, and dry well. Do this for an hour at a time, _twice_, or if possible _three times_, a day. Continue for a fortnight, cease treatment for a week, and again treat for another fortnight. This should make such improvement as to encourage to further perseverance with the cure. Sometimes failing sight follows neuralgia. In this case the rubbing described in Eyes, Squinting, given twice a day for fifteen or twenty minutes each day, will be useful in addition to above treatment.
Even in cases in which "cataract" is fully formed, we find that the disease is arrested, and the patient at least gets no worse. But where this malady is only threatened the haze soon passes away. We most earnestly wish and pray that this simple treatment should be as widely known as there are failing eyes in this world of trial.
Eyes, Hazy Sight.--Frequently, after inflammation, and even when that has ceased, the sight is left in a hazy condition. The eyes may be in such cases rather cold than hot, and not amenable to the cooling applications. The whole system also lacks vital action. First, in such a case, wash the back thoroughly all over at night with hot water and SOAP (_see_). Dry well and rub hot olive oil into the skin until dry. In the morning rub the back for a few minutes with vinegar or weak ACETIC ACID (_see_) before getting out of bed, dry, and rub with warm olive oil. A strip of new flannel should be sewn on the underclothing, so as to cover the whole back. The feet and legs should be bathed (_see_ Bathing Feet) twice a week. All alcoholic drinks, and most drugs, should be avoided, while only such food should be taken as can be converted into good blood. Half a teacupful of _distilled_ water should be taken before each meal. The whole of this diet tends to produce healthy blood, which is the great means of dissolving all haziness in the lenses and humours of the eyes.
Every drop of alcohol does so much to reduce that action. We have heard this beautifully described by one of the foremost of living medical men. He began by stating, what no one can doubt, that a certain quantity of alcohol taken by the strongest man will kill that man as effectually as if he were shot through the head with a rifle bullet. Now a certain portion of alcohol takes a man's sight entirely away. Half that quantity will only render his vision "double"--that is, unfit him to see objects as they really are. Half that again will only perceptibly impair the power of the eyes; but the action of the smallest particle of the substance is the same in nature as that of the largest quantity. Hence that action is to reduce the very efficiency of the nerves of the eye, which it is of such immense importance to nurse to the uttermost. No mere dictum, however strongly expressed, can hold for a moment against this transparent reason. Hence, if a person must take alcoholic liquor, the cure of inflammation in his eyes, and of the thickening of the transparent portions of these organs, is simply out of the question unless the disease is comparatively slight, and his nervous constitution strong.
The very same reason holds good of tobacco. So of opium. So of every other narcotic, whatever it may be called. Hundreds of men lose their eyesight by the use of tobacco alone. We have seen their eyeballs gradually becoming sightless when no change could be detected in their eyes--only the optic nerve gradually lost its sensibility till they were entirely blind. We are perfectly aware that there are those who will scout the idea of such an effect, and prescribe these very narcotics largely in such cases; it is because such drugs are used and ordered that we are compelled thus to reason about them. In all cases of failing eyesight they should be carefully avoided. So should all foods which are not easily converted into healthful blood.
Eyes, Healthy.--Cheap, ill-printed literature is responsible for much eye trouble, and it is well worth while to pay, if possible, a little extra for books well printed, especially in the case of those who read much. When reading sit erect, with the back to the light, so that it falls over the shoulder. Too fine work, dim light, wrong diet, and want of exercise produce the dull and strained eye, which eventually becomes seriously diseased. Opening the eyes under cold water will help to strengthen them, and massaging the muscles of the eye by passing the finger and thumb round the socket (with scarcely any pressure on the ball itself) will be found of advantage.
Eyes, Inflamed.--For all kinds of burning inflammatory pain in the eyes, the following treatment is most effective. Place a hot BRAN POULTICE (_see_) beneath the back of the head and neck while the patient lies on the back. Press gently fresh cool damp cloths, frequently changed, all over the eyeballs and sockets, so as to draw out the heat. No one who has not seen this done can imagine how powerful a remedy it is. It may also be necessary, if the feet be cold, to foment up to the knees. This last fomentation is best done at bedtime, and the feet and legs should be rubbed with olive oil, and a pair of cotton stockings put on to sleep in, to keep the feet comfortable.
If the eyes are very sensitive the treatment should go on in dim light, as may be felt necessary. The poultice and cold cloths may be used for an hour twice a day. In bad cases, where sight has been seriously affected, a good rubbing of all the skin of the head with the finger tips may be given before the poultice is applied. This rubbing must not be a trial to the patient, but gently done, with kindly good will, and it must be pursued for fifteen or twenty minutes, until the whole head is in a warm glow.
Eyes, Inflamed, with General Eruptions over the Body.--In some cases the eye trouble is only a part of a general skin inflammation, accompanied with heat all over the body, and an acrid, irritating discharge from eruptions on the face and elsewhere, especially on the head. The cold cloths and poultice will not work in such a case. The chief agent in the cure is fine soap lather (_see_ Head, Soaping). Let the head be shampooed with it for half-an-hour. The whole body should then be lathered and shampooed for a short time in a warm bath; this is best done at bedtime. Much water is not needed; warm soapy lather, well rubbed all over, is what is required. Ordinary soap will make the skin worse; only M'Clinton's will do to soothe and heal it (_see_ Soap). If white specks show on the eyes, the treatment in article on Eyes, Danger to Sight of, will cure these. When this complaint is obstinate and refuses to heal, medical advice should be sought, as blood poisoning is probably present.
Eyes, Paralysis of.--The partial paralysis of the muscles of one eye produces double vision, so that the patient sees two similar objects where there is only one. This double vision is often, however, the result of stomach derangement. If so, it may soon pass away. The true paralysis is more persistent. To cure this, rub the entire skin of the head gently and steadily with the hands and finger-tips (stroking always _upwards_) for some fifteen minutes. Then apply cold cloths to the eyes as already directed. If the cold cloths are uncomfortable, hot ones should be tried. Do this for fifteen minutes also. Continue alternately for an hour twice or three times a day. We have known one such day's treatment remove the double vision _entirely_, and no relapse occur, but in most cases the treatment must be persevered in and returned to until the paralysis is overcome.
Eyes, Spots on.--These spots are of two different kinds, and yet they are very much the same in nature and substance. What is called "a cataract" is of a different character. We refer not to this, but to the spots that form on the surface of the eyeball, and those that form in the membrane of the eyelid. When inflammation has gone on for some time on the eyeball itself, portions of whitish matter form on the glassy surface and soon interfere with the sight. When inflammation has gone on in the eyelid, little knots like pin-heads form, producing a feeling as if sand were in the eye. Afterwards these knots grow large and swell the eyelid, and at times the matter in them grows hard, and seems to take up a lasting abode in that tissue. Strong and destructive liquids or powders are sometimes applied, that so affect the whole substance of the eye as to cause blindness. Nothing of this nature is required at all. First, the skin of the head must be dealt with. You will find that this is hot and dry, and somewhat hard on the skull. Rub this gently with the dry hands for a few minutes, then press a cloth tightly wrung out of cold water all round the head. Rub and cool alternately for half-an-hour or more if it continues to produce an agreeable feeling. When the head is all soothed, and good action has been secured, at least on its surface, begin with the eye itself. The same treatment is required for both classes of cases. The eye will be shut at first. You take a fine camel's-hair brush, such as is used by artists, and some vinegar or acetic acid, so weak that you can swallow a portion of it without hurting your throat. This is a very good test of strength for the acid. You carefully brush over the outside of the eyelids and all round the eye with this weak acid. This must be done most carefully and patiently for a length of time, till all sweatiness is washed off, and a fine warm feeling is produced by the acid. The matter softens and breaks up, so that it begins to pass away. We have seen a little ball of hard white matter break up and come away after a single brushing carefully done. When the matter is in the eyelid, and is so situated that you can brush over it in the inside of the lid, it is well to do so; but this operation must be gently and carefully done. When you have brushed with the acid long enough, dry the eyelids and cheek carefully, and rub with a little fresh olive or almond oil. It will be well to cover the eye from the cold, and from any dust that might irritate. You will soon find that it is as clear and sound as could be wished.
Eyes, Squinting.--Various affections of the eyeball muscles cause this. To cure it is often easy, sometimes very difficult. The method of treatment is to stimulate all the nerves of the head and face, and at the same time to soothe their irritation. This is accomplished by massaging the brow and entire head. It must be gently and soothingly done. The open hands are drawn upwards over the brow from the eyebrows, the rubber standing behind the patient. Then both sides of the head and the back of the head are stroked similarly. After this the whole head is rubbed briskly with the finger-points. This should be done often, even four or five times in the day. If the patient objects, it is being unskilfully done; the right sort of rubbing is always pleasant. A squinting eye has been cured in a few rubbings, where the case was a simple one. If the head becomes very hot, it may be cooled as directed above for Children's Sleep. Squinting may be produced or increased by that state of the stomach and bowels in which worms are bred.