Part 25

The first food should be split grits, afterwards tail wheat, all watery food, soaked bread, or potatoes, being improper. Eggs boiled hard, or curd chopped small, is very suitable as first food. Their water should be pure and often renewed, and there are pans made in such forms, that the chickens may drink without getting into the water, which, by wetting their feet and feathers, numbs and injures them; a bason in the middle of a pan of water, will answer the end; the water running round it. There is no necessity for cooping the brood beyond two or three days, but they may be confined as occasion requires, or suffered to range, as they are much benefited by the foraging of the hen. They should not be let out too early in the morning, whilst the dew lies upon the ground, nor be suffered to range over wet grass, which is a common and fatal cause of disease in fowls. Another caution requisite is to guard them against unfavourable changes of the weather, particularly if rainy. Nearly all the diseases of fowls arise from cold moisture.

For the period of the chickens quitting the hen, there is no general rule; when she begins to roost, if sufficiently forward, they will follow her; if otherwise, they should be secured in a proper place, till the time arrives when they are to associate with the other young poultry, since the larger are sure to overrun and drive from their food the younger broods.

TO FATTEN POULTRY.

An experiment has lately been tried of feeding geese with turnips, cut in small pieces like dice, but less in size, and put into a trough of water; with this food alone, the effect was, that six geese, each when lean weighed only 9 lbs., actually gained 20 lbs. each in about three weeks fattening.

Malt is excellent food for geese and turkeys; grains are preferred for the sake of economy, unless for immediate and rapid fattening; the grains should be boiled afresh.

Other cheap articles for fattening, are oatmeal and treacle; barley-meal and milk; boiled oats, and ground malt.

Corn before being given to fowls should always be crushed and soaked in water. The food will thus go further, and it will help digestion. Hens fed thus have been known to lay during the whole of the winter months.

TO DETERMINE THE ECONOMY OF A COW.

The ANNUAL PRODUCT of a good fair dairy cow, during several months after calving, either in summer or winter, if duly fed and kept in the latter season, will be an average of seven pounds of butter per week, and from five to three gallons of milk per day. Afterwards, a weekly average of three or four pounds of butter from barely half the quantity of milk. It depends on the constitution of the cow, how nearly she may be milked to the time of her calving, some giving good milk until within a week or two of that period, others requiring to be dried 8 or 9 weeks previously. I have heard (says Mr. Lawrence) of 20 lbs. of butter, and even 22 lbs. made from the milk of one long-horned cow in seven days; but I have never been fortunate enough to obtain one that would produce more than 12 lbs. per week, although I have had a Yorkshire cow which milked 7 gallons per day, yet never made 5 lbs. of butter in one week. On the average 3 gallons of good milk will make 1 lb. of butter.

TO MAKE SALT BUTTER FRESH.

To every pound of salt butter put a quart of new milk, and a little arnotto. Churn it an hour, then take it out and treat it as fresh butter, by washing it with water, and add the usual quantity of salt. The butter gains about three ounces in the pound.

SUBSTITUTE FOR MILK AND CREAM.

Beat up the whole of a fresh egg, in a basin, then pour boiling tea over it gradually, to prevent its curdling. It is difficult, from the taste, to distinguish the composition from rich cream.

TO PRESERVE EGGS.

Apply with a brush a solution of gum-arabic to the shells, or immerse the eggs therein; let them dry, and afterwards pack them in dry charcoal dust. This prevents their being affected by any alterations of temperature.

_Another Way._

Immerse them for a short time in strong lime-water, and they may be kept two years, if required.

TO TEST THE PURITY OF FLOUR.

Grasp a handful briskly, and squeeze it half a minute: if genuine, it will preserve the form of the cavity of the hand, even though rudely placed on a table; if adulterated, it will almost immediately fall down.

TO PRODUCE ONE-THIRD MORE BREAD FROM A GIVEN QUANTITY OF CORN.

Boil 5 lbs. of the coarsest bran in four gallons and half of water, keep stirring it, that it may not stick to the bottom, till reduced to four gallons, then pour it off into a trough, or tub full of holes, over which lay a coarse cloth or sieve. On the top of the whole put a wooden cover, with a weight sufficiently heavy to press out the liquor from the bran, which will sink to the bottom of the tub in a thick pulp. This liquor will contain the essential oil of the corn, and when kneaded in with half a hundred weight of flour, and the usual quantity of salt and yeast, it will yield one-third more bread than the same quantity of flour would, made with water in the usual way. Divide into middle sized loaves and bake two hours and a half.

When ten days old put it into the oven for twenty minutes and it will appear quite new.

TO MAKE FLOUR PASTE.

Paste is made principally of wheaten flour boiled in water till it be of a glutinous or viscid consistence. It may be thus prepared simply for common purposes; but when it is required for paper hangings to rooms, it is usual to mix a fourth, fifth, or sixth of the weight of the flour of powdered resin; and where it is wanted still more tenacious, gum arabic, or any kind of size may be added.

THE CHAMBER NURSE.

Every experienced person, and every liberal physician and medical man, is sensible of the value of a careful, skilful, and kind-hearted nurse, and that the alleviation of sickness and the actual cure of diseases, depend as much on the anxious attention of the nurse, as on the efficacy of medicine itself. Good temper, patience, watchfulness, and sobriety, are the cardinal virtues of every good nurse, and when possessed by one who unites skill with those personal qualities, she is a treasure above all price.

Although the chamber nurse forms no part of the establishment of healthy families, yet as in every family she is a necessary auxiliary for longer or shorter periods, a brief notice of her qualifications and duties, will confer completeness on such a volume as the present.

The chamber or sick nurse should be qualified for her duty by some experience; and if her experience has been considerable, and she is a woman of good understanding, she will prove herself quite as important in the nursery of the sick, as medical practitioners, or all the drugs in an apothecary’s shop. She ought to be past the middle age, and if a married woman or widow, so much the better. She ought to be clean in her person, and neat in her dress, and free from habits of drinking or snuff-taking. She ought also to be a woman of cheerful and equable temper, and, above all things, free from superstition, or belief in charms, omens, signs, dreams, and other follies of gross ignorance.

The sick room should be clean, well aired, and free from noisome smells; and, on the contrary, the air should be purified by sprinkling vinegar or eau de cologne, and occasionally burning a little vinegar in a heated shovel.

Quietness, in every respect, is of the first consequence. Fire irons should be avoided: creaking doors and locks should be oiled; and list shoes constantly worn. Talking loud and whispering, so as to excite the suspicion of the patient, should be equally avoided; and a long feather should be pushed through the key-hole, as a signal on the outside, when the patient is asleep. The nurse should only sleep when the patient sleeps, as one means of preventing the patient being awoke by her frivolous activity.

In cases of contagion, whatever is sent out of the room, should be immersed in water, and the nurse should be careful not to receive the breath of the patient, nor to sit on the bed. She should also carry about her person a bag of camphor, and during such diseases, frequently fumigate the room with vinegar, and indulge occasionally in half a glass of brandy.

The sick chamber should be provided with a lamp and appurtenances, for heating whatever may be wanted; with a tea kettle, two or three saucepans, empty bottles for hot water, (to put to the feet,) some sal volatile and spirits, a bottle of salts, and of eau de cologne; some lambs-wool gloves to rub the patient, a bed-pan, a foot-bath, or a large tin bath; some lemonade, barley-water, and toast and water: oranges, lemons, and empty medicine bottles, which occasion smells that infect the air, should be kept in an adjoining room. There should also be a supply of flannel, old linen, and napkins, for every purpose. Different medicines should be carefully kept apart; lest pernicious ones be given, or proper ones, at improper times. A thermometer in the room is the only means of keeping an equal temperature, or increasing or diminishing it, as the medical attendants may direct.

The reports of the nurse to the physician, and the observations of the physician, should always be made in an adjoining room, and the mind of the patient not be distracted by details of symptoms, and of the nurse’s business. Changes which take place after the visit of the medical attendant, should be immediately reported, and in all that regards the administration of the medicines, and the general system of treatment, the nurse should scrupulously obey the instructions of the medical advisers, not only as the most likely means of promoting the speedy recovery of the patient, but to remove from herself all responsibility and blame. At the same time, she should not withhold her opinion, in regard to the effect of the medicines administered, and in her conferences with the medical advisers, should suggest whatever appears likely to be useful.

Nurses, according to the length of a disease, are paid by the day, week, or month; and as boarders in the family, they ought not to take advantage of the sympathy which induces the relatives of the sick to afford them every indulgence, so as to involve unnecessary or wanton expenses; but consider the interest of the family, whose affliction requires their attendance, as their own. The usual payment of a nurse in London, is from 10s. 6d. to 15s. per week, according to the circumstances of the parties, and of the case.

Nurses who have to compound and administer Family Medicines must be prepared with proper scales and weights; and with graduated glass measures, such as are used by Apothecaries; according to the following

TABLES OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

_Measure of Fluids._

1 gal. measure (cong.) contains 8 pints, 1 pint (O.) 16 ounces, 1 ounce (f. ℥.) 8 drams, 1 dram (f. ʒ.) 60 minims, (_m._)

_Weights of Dry Substances._

1 pound (lb.) contains 12 ounces, 1 ounce (℥.) 8 drams, 1 dram (ʒ.) 60 grains, (gr.) 1 scruple (℈.) 20 grains, or 1-3d of a dram.

It is customary to distinguish quantities of fluid from dry substances, by prefixing the letter f. (fluid) when an ounce or dram is mentioned in medical works, as may be seen in the first of these tables.

The following table of the gradations of doses of medicines for _different ages_, will in general be found pretty correct, and ought never to be deviated from, except by professional advice.

If at the age of _maturity_ the dose be _one dram_, the proportion will be at

From 14 to 21 years, 2 scruples, 7 14 half a dram, 4 7 1 scruple, 4 15 grains, 3 half a scruple, 2 8 grains, 1 5 grains, 6 months 3 grains, 3 2 grains, 1 1 grain.

TOAST AND WATER.

Cut a slice of fine and stale loaf bread, very thin, and let it be carefully toasted on both sides, until browned all over, but not blackened or burned. Put the toast into a deep stone or china jug, and pour over it, from the tea-kettle, as much boiling water as required to make into drink. Cover the jug with a saucer or plate, and let the drink become quite cold; it will then be fit for use. Toast and water is peculiarly grateful to the stomach, and excellent for carrying off the effects of any excess in drinking. It is also a most excellent drink at meals.

WATER-GRUEL.

Put a large spoonful of oatmeal into a pint of water, stir it well together, and let it boil three or four times, stirring it often. Then strain it through a sieve, put in some salt according to taste, and if necessary add a piece of fresh butter. Stir with a spoon until the butter is melted, when it will be fine and smooth.

BARLEY-WATER.

Take of pearl-barley, 2 oz. water, 4 pints. First wash off the mealy matter which adheres to the barley with some cold water; then extract the colouring matter, by boiling it a little with about half a pint of water. Throw this decoction away; and put the barley thus purified into four pints of boiling water; then boil down to one half and strain the decoction.

COMPOUND BARLEY WATER.

Take of the decoction of barley, 2 pints, raisins, stoned, 2 oz. figs, sliced, 2 do. liquorice-root, sliced and bruised, ½ oz. distilled water, 1 pint. During the boiling, add the raisins first, and then the figs, and, lastly, the liquorice, a short time before it is finished, when the strained decoction ought to measure two pints.

These liquors are to be used freely, as diluting drinks in _fevers_ and other acute disorders.

PANADA.

Put a blade of mace, a large piece of the crumb of bread, and a quart of water, in a clean saucepan. Let it boil two minutes, then take out the bread, and bruise it very fine in a bason. Mix with it as much of the warm water as it will require, pour away the rest and sweeten it to the taste of the patient. If necessary, put in a piece of butter the size of a walnut, but add no wine. Grate in a little nutmeg, if requisite.

BEEF TEA.

Take off the fat and skin from a pound of lean beef, and cut it into pieces. Then put it into a gallon of water, with the under crust of a penny loaf, and a small portion of salt. Let the whole boil till reduced to two quarts, and strain, when it will be fit for use.

MUTTON BROTH.

Take the fat off a pound of loin of mutton, and put the lean into a quart of water. Skim it well as it boils, and put in a piece of the upper crust of bread, with a large blade of mace. Having covered it up close, let it boil closely for half an hour, and then pour the broth clear off, without stirring. Season it with a little salt. Turnips should not be boiled with the meat.

MEDICINAL TEA.

This country affords herbs much more wholesome than either tea or coffee, and if they were all imported from a distant region, and sold at a high price, they would, no doubt, be held in great estimation. The following composition is very superior to tea or coffee, inasmuch as the infusion is very agreeable, will strengthen the stomach, and invigorate, instead of debilitate, the nervous system.

Take of rosemary leaves, dried, 2 oz. sage do. do. 4 oz. rose do. do. 4 oz. peach do. do. 3 oz. hyssop do. do. 4 oz. balm do. do. 5 oz. male speedwell, (veronica) 4 oz.

A wine-glassful of these mixed herbs is sufficient to make 3 pints of infusion, which is made in the same manner as tea, sugar and milk being added. In London, where herbs are sold at a dearer rate than in the country, it may be obtained at the rate of 2s. per pound.—Either of the above ingredients may be diminished or augmented at pleasure. If too bitter, lessen the quantity of hyssop, and add dried mint leaves.

ISINGLASS JELLY, &c.

Put an ounce of isinglass, and a few cloves, into a quart of water. Boil it down to a pint, strain it upon a pound of loaf sugar, and when cold, add a little wine, when it will be fit for use.—A very nourishing beverage may be made by merely boiling the isinglass with milk, and sweetening with lump sugar.

SALOP.

Put a dessert spoonful of the powder of salop, into a pint of boiling water. Keep stirring it till it becomes of the consistence of jelly, and then add white wine and sugar, according to taste.

SUBSTITUTE FOR ASSES MILK.

Put an ounce of hartshorn shavings into a quart of boiling barley-water; boil down to a pint, add two ounces of candid eringo root, and a pint of new milk; boil for a quarter of an hour, when strain for use.

BROWN CAUDLE.

Boil four spoonsful of oatmeal, a blade or two of mace, and a piece of lemon peel, in two quarts of water, for about a quarter of an hour; taking care that it does not boil over. Then strain, and add a quart of good ale that is not bitter. Sweeten it to the palate, and add half a pint of white wine. When no white wine is used the caudle should consist of one half of ale.

WHITE CAUDLE.

Make the gruel as above, and strain through a sieve, but put no ale to it. When to be used, sweeten according to taste, grate in some nutmeg, and add a little white wine. Juice of lemon is sometimes added.

TRANSPARENT SOUP FOR CONVALESCENTS.

Cut the meat from a leg of veal into small pieces, and break the bone into several bits. Put the meat into a very large jug, and the bones at top, with a bunch of common sweet herbs, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half a pound of Jordan almonds, finely blanched and beaten. Pour on it four quarts of boiling water, and let it stand all night, covered close by the fire-side. The next day put it into a well-tinned saucepan, and let it boil slowly, till it is reduced to two quarts. Be careful, at the time it is boiling, to skim it, and take off the fat as it rises. Strain into a punch-bowl, and when settled for two hours, pour it into a clean saucepan, clear from the sediment, if any.

EFFERVESCING DRAUGHT.

Pulverize 1 ounce of citric acid, and divide it into 24 parts; that is, 24 scruples, which are to be put into separate small _blue_ papers. Pulverize, also, 1 ounce of the sub-carbonate of soda, and divide it into 24 like packages, in _white_ paper. When the draught is to be prepared, put the carbonate into a tumbler, half filled with water: in another, dissolve the acid in an equal quantity; throw one into the other, and drink it while effervescing.

A similar preparation may be made by using tartaric acid instead of the citric.

TO PREVENT INFECTION.

Mix in a plate, a few ounces of pulverized black oxyde of manganese and common salt, which being placed in the house supposed to be infected, sprinkle oil of vitriol upon the mixture, and gas will arise which will render the place perfectly salubrious. The oil of vitriol should be carefully added by a few drops at a time, the face being turned from the mixture.

SALINE DRAUGHT.

Dissolve 20 grains of carbonate of potass in a table-spoonful of lemon juice, and three table-spoonsful of water, to which add a small quantity of lump sugar. This draught is very serviceable in sore throats, &c.

SEDLITZ POWDERS.

Take of Rochelle salt, 1 dram, carbonate of soda, 25 grains, tartaric acid, 20 do. Dissolve the first two in a tumbler of water, then add the latter, _and drink_ without loss of time.

TO DISTINGUISH GOOD RHUBARB FROM BAD.

The general characters of good rhubarb are, it having a whitish or clear yellow colour, being dry, solid, and compact; moderately heavy, and brittle; when recently broken appearing marked with yellow or reddish veins, mixed with white; being easily pulverizable; forming a powder of a fine bright yellow, having the peculiar, nauseous, aromatic smell of rhubarb, and a sub-acrid, bitterish, somewhat astringent taste, and when chewed feeling gritty under the teeth, speedily colouring the saliva, and not appearing very mucilaginous.

TAMARIND WATER.

This fruit very much resembles the nature of prunes, but is more acid, and enters as a useful ingredient into the lenitive electuary. It is found of the highest use in a sore throat, as a powerful cleanser; and, put into boiling water until moderately cold, is a delightful drink to persons parched under the heat of fever, and in the lowest state of putrid fever.

WATER-CRESSES.

Water-cresses act as a gentle stimulant and diuretic; for these purposes the expressed juice, which contains the peculiar taste and pungency of the herb, may be taken in doses of an ounce or two, and continued for a considerable time. It should be at the same time eaten at breakfast, also at dinner, and for supper, to experience benefit from the virtues of this herb.

WHITE COUGH MIXTURE.

Mix 1 dram of powdered spermaceti with the yolks of 2 eggs; then add 1 dram of tincture of opium, and 5 oz., of water.

To be taken in the quantity of a wine-glassful when the cough is troublesome.

FOR ALLAYING COUGH IN THE NIGHT, AND PROCURING REST.

Mix together a dessert spoonful of syrup of poppies, and 15 drops of antimonial wine. To be taken at a draught, with or without a little warm water, either at bed-time, or in the middle of the night. Half this quantity may be given to a child under the same circumstances.

_Another._

Mix together in a wine-glass, 30 drops of laudanum, 4 tea-spoonsful of vinegar, and 6 tea-spoonsful of water, sweetened with a little lump sugar.

ALMOND MILK.

Take of sweet almonds, blanched, 1½ oz. double-refined sugar, ¾ oz. distilled water, 2½ pints. Beat the almonds with the sugar; then rubbing them together, add by degrees the water, and strain the liquor.

Almost any quantity may be taken as a frequent drink to soften coughs, and to assuage urinary disorders.

MUCILAGE OF GUM ARABIC.

Take of gum-arabic, in powder, 4 oz. boiling water, 8 oz. Triturate the gum with a small portion of the water until it be dissolved.

It is necessary to pass the mucilage through linen, in order to free it from pieces of wood and other impurities, which always adhere to the gum: the linen may be placed in a funnel.

Mucilage of gum-arabic is very useful in making up medicines, &c. it also possesses the powers of a _mucilaginous demulcent_ in a high degree; and is frequently given in _diarrhœa_, _dysentery_, _chin-cough_, _hoarseness_, _strangury_, _&c._

GUM-ARABIC EMULSION.

Take of gum-arabic, in powder, 2 drams, sweet almonds, blanched, double refined sugar, each ½ dram, decoction of barley, 1 pint. Dissolve the gum in the warm decoction; and when it is almost cold, pour it upon the almonds, previously well beaten with the sugar, and at the same time triturate them together, so as to form an emulsion, and then filter.

The almonds are blanched by infusing them in boiling water, and peeling them. The success of the preparation depends upon beating the almonds to a smooth pulp, and triturating them with each portion of the watery fluid, so as to form an uniform mixture before another portion be added.

DECOCTION OF MARSHMALLOWS

Take of marshmallow roots, bruised, 4 oz. sun raisins, stoned, 2 oz. water, 7 pints. Boil down to five pints; strain the decoction, and after the grounds have subsided, pour off the clear liquor.