Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal. Vol. I. / [Nicholas Culpeper].

  • Culpeper, Nicholas, 1616-1654
Date:
1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Culpeper's English physician ; and complete herbal. Vol. I. / [Nicholas Culpeper]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    732/756 (page 236)
    When i\\cfutures or joining feams of the head continue too long open, it is thought a bad fign. In this cafe it is ufual to rub the head often with a little warm, rum or brandy, mixed with the white of an egg and palm-oil, a red cloth being conhantly worn over the part. But, when this diforder proceeds from a collec- tion of water in the head, it mufl: be cured by ilTues in the neck, perpetual blif, ters, and purgatives. A purgative diet-drink may be made of rhubarb and fvveet- fennel feeds, to be drunk daily. When there is a diforder diredly oppofite to this, called head^mould Jhot, which fignifies a too clofe locking of the futures,'it is ufually left to nature, as admitting of no help from medicine. Breakings-out in children, when they are fuperficial, contain a thin yellow mat- ter, and leave the fkin beneath red when the fcabs fall off, are rather faluta- ry than hurtful. It is cuflomary, however, to purge with a few grains of rhubarb, and anoint the puhules with cream, or oil of almonds, or extract of Saturn, com- monly called goulard. A little bafilicon, llkewife, fpread thin upon lint, has been found ufcful; and the body fliould be kept open. But, when thefe eafes grow inveterate and (lubborn, there can be no fafer method than a courfe of Ethiop’s mineral and rhubarb. 1 he rickets is a diforder of the bones in children, caufing a bunching out or crookednefs thereof. It may be occafioned by fvvathing a child too tight in fomc places, and too loofe in others; by placing it in an inconvenient, or too often in the fame, poflure; fuffering it to be long wet, not giving it proper motion, or ufing it to one arm only. It may alfo be owing to the parents, or fome de- fed in the digeflive faculty, or a vifeidity of the blood. But the moll evident caufe of the rickets, is the violence done to the body by preffure of fwathing, while the bones are but in a cartilaginous hate. Add to this, external injury by falls, blows, diflocations, or fractures, which fometimes bring on an aflhma, con- fumption, or crookednefs of the back. Upon the fii fc appearance of this difeafe, which ufually happens between the eighth month and the fifth year, the part it afifeds grow flaccid and weak ; the child becomes pale, fickly, flothful, and lofcs the ufe of its feet, though it had it before; the head grows too large for the trunk, and cannot be managed by the mufcles of the neck; knotty excrefeen- ccs ajjpear in the wrifls, ancles, and tops of the ribs; the bones of the legs and thighs become crooked, which makes the motion difagreeable,* and fometimes the arms alfo are diflorted, and appear knotty. If thefe fymptoms continue long, a difficulty of breathing, cough, and hyfteric fever, come on; the belly fwells, the pulfe grow's weak, and the child’s life is in danger. The rickets is moft commonly cured, w hen taken in time and while the child is very young. But, if it continues long, the patient gene- rally