A dictionary of domestic medicine and household surgery / by Spencer Thomson.

  • Thomson, Spencer, 1848-1883.
Date:
1897
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of domestic medicine and household surgery / by Spencer Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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142/772 (page 122)
the same objection does not hold good where it is employed in outhouses, privies, or dung heaps. Other preparations require sprinkling about the place to be purified, and as this is often done in ignorance of its colour-destroying powers, much damage is done to furniture, &c. A pre- paration, known by the name of Collin’s disinfecting powder, seems to be free from the above objections; when a portion of it is exposed to the atmosphere in a plate or saucer it keeps up a certain, but sufficient exhalation of chlorine for some days, as it continues to absorb moisture. It is quite the best, most effective, and agreeable method for employing chlorine in the chambers of the sick which the author has met with. The principal preparation used in medicine into the composition of which chlorine enters, is the liquor chlori, which is a solution of the gas in water, and which may be used as a gargle for affections of the mouth and throat, attended with fostor and sloughing, as in malignant sore throat, diphtheria, and bad ulcers. Hydro- chloric acid is a gaseous compound of chlorine with hydrogen gas, but is usually met with in solution of a yellow colour. It has a suffocat- ing odour and gives off pale yellow fumes when exposed to the air. It is, of course, a powerful corrosive poison when swallowed alone; its antidotes are the carbonates of potash, chalk, or magnesia in any form, or milk, or white of egg, whichever is first at hand, until the antacids are procured. In the absence of any of these, soap water may be given; but, in poisoning with any acid, it should be re- membered, that mortar or whitewash, rubbed up finely with water or milk, may be used on emergency as an antidote; the lime neutralising the acid. Of course the other antacids, parti- cularly magnesia, are to bo used if procurable at once. Of the latter, a dessert-spoonful may bo given every ten minutes, and repeated according to the effect and probable amount of acid swallowed. Hydrochloric acid is used in medicine as an unstimulating tonic, particularly in diseases such as malignant scarlatina, which are accompanied with tendency to putrcscency; it is also used as a mouth-wash or gargle, in the same disease. The diluted hydrochloric acid is given in doses of ten drops, in a wine-glassful of water sweetened with sugar, or it may, if preferred, be taken much more largely diluted, and then forms a pleasant drink. . It may be used as a gargle, in the proportion of two drachms to the pint of water. As in the case of acids generally, unless largely diluted, the doses should be sucked through a quill or glass 1 tube, to preserve the teeth from corrosion, and it is likewise a useful precaution, for the same purpose, to rinse the mouth with a diluted solution'of carbonate of soda. In the absence of means for procuring chlorine, if fumigation is required, hydrochloric acid gas may be.used as a substitute, as it is disengaged by mixing 122 equal weights of common salt and oil of vitriol —sulphuric acid—care being taken against inhaling its irritating fumes in too concentrated a state. CHLQR.ODY2TE.—There are few remedies which have proved more general favourites than the above. It is said to consist of prussic acid, in combination with morphia, chloroform, and Indian hemp as its principal components, and it possesses, combined in an eminent degree, many of the best properties of an opiate and an autispasmodic. It is agreeable to the taste of many persons, and can be given either alone in water, or combined with other remedies. Perhaps its greatest value has been in cases of irritating cough, as in consumption, and in irritation of the bowels, accompanied by pain and diarrhoea. In the former case, live or ten minims in an ounce of camphor mixture three times a day; and in the latter, the same dose in an ounce of chalk-mixture may be given. In cases of acidity, with much irritation of the stomach, an excellent prescription is, ten or fifteen drops of clilorodyne ■with fifteen to twenty grains of bicarbonate of soda, in a wine- glassful of water, two or three times a day. From its warm, aromatic taste, and comforting action in cases of griping and uneasiness in the bowels, it is generally a favourite remedy with patients ; and although, in the strictest sense of the word, a quack medicine, and, of course, not allowed a place in the British Pharma- copoeia, yet it is very much prescribed by some medical m en. Either alone, or combined with other remedies, it has proved of eminent service in cases of sea-sickness which have re- sisted many other kinds of treatment. It has been extensively used, both in this country and abroad, by domestic as well as by regular prac- titioners, in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery, and it has been authoritatively stated tliat it is one of the best of known remedies for cholera. One thing is certain, that its uses are so varied and general that it should form part of the equipment of every domestic medicine chest. Clilorodyne of known composition can now ho obtained, so that those who have a very proper objection to using remedies, the constituent parts of which are kept secret, may employ it without further scruple. Of course, as it has the action of a powerful opiate, it must bo given with extreme caution to young children, and in all cases where opiates are likely to exert an undue action. Infantile Diarrhoea.— For a young infant twelve grains of bicarbonate of soda in five minims of chlorodjmo and an ounce and a half of water, form an excellent mixture where there is griping aud flatulence; one tea-spoonful may be given twice or thrice in the twenty-four hours. When diarrhoea is present, chalk may be substituted for soda. CHLOROFOHM is a transparent heavy fluid possessing an agreeable, fruity flavour and