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

  • Thomson Spencer, -1886.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    57/736 (page 37)
    spurious arnica sold. When the pure tinc- ture is dropped into water, it gives it a milky or opalescent appearance. Hazeline may well take the place of arnica on account of its superior astringent and healing properties.— See Hazeline. AROMATICS.—Stimulants derived from the vegetable kingdom, possessing a more or less powerful and generally agi-eeable odour, a warm and agreeable taste. They are for the most part products of warm climates, and appear specially adapted to the relaxed constitutions of the natives. A free use of aromatics is said to counteract the effects of malaria in tropical countries. Some stimulant is certainly requisite in those climates, and the native productions bestowed by Providence are evidently much better adapted to fulfil the indication than alcoholic excitants. Mace, cloves, cinnamon, are all aromatics. Angelica is one of the few aromatics of temperate climates, and perhaps the best. ABROW-ROOT, now so well known, is procured of the best quality from the West Indies, especially from Bermuda, whence it is imported in soldered tin cases. It is now also imported from East India, and an inferior kind is brought from Tahiti. Arrow-root is subject to much mixture and adulteration, but genei-ally — as with potato-starch, &c.—of a harmless character as regards the consumer. The best arrow-root ought to be pm-e white, slightly glistening in the mass, and the powder of which it is composed collected together in small crumbs or lumps, which break down with a slight crackling sensation beneath the finger. Arrow-root is pure starch, and forms a peculiarly stiff jelly. As an article of sick cookery it is invaluable, where mild support is required without stimulation, and in conval- escence, and chronic disease. There are few stomachs with which it disagrees, and infants both lilce and do well with it. At the same time, it is proper to caution against the too common error of trusting too much to the nutritive powers of arrow-root alone, especially for children. It may give support indirectly, that is to say, by supplying material for re- spiration and animal heat, it may save the tissues of the body, or it may even go to build up some of these tissues, but alone it can never make bone or muscle, for the simple reason that it does not contain the elements necessary for these constituents of the frame. A child fed exclusively on arrow-root, water, and sugar (and such has been the case), must become unhealthy, and, without fail, rickety. The case is abundantly altered, when, with arrow-root, milk is combined. In this fluid exists whatever is requsite for the animal frame, nitrogen for its muscle, phosphorus for its nerve, earthy salts for its bone. The combina- tion of arrow-root with milk is one of the best which can be given to a child, or to an adult in the early stages of convalescence from illness. It must never be given to young infants. AiTow-root and milk is prepared in the follow- ing manner. Take a dessert-spoonful of arrow- root and stir it in a basin, with a dessert-spoon- ful of cold milk, until it forms a paste, and then add sugar, according to taste. Pour over this slowly half a pint of boiling milk, stirring the mixture at the same time, to render it smooth. Arrow-root pudding is best made by adding to the above mixture the yolks of two eggs, whipping it all well together. The whites of the eggs after being whipped into a stiff froth in a separate basin are to be added to the mixture, stirring lightly. The whole is then placed in a buttered dish and put in the oven to bake for ten minutes. AKSENIG is a metal; the substance which usually goes under the name, and which is also called white arsenic, is an oxide of the metal; it is a too well-known poison, and was at one time more universally used than any other for destroying life. Its tastelessness, cheapness, and the culpable facilitj'^ with which it was obtain- able combined to make it familiar. The dan- gers arising to workpeople engaged in certain trades where arsenic is used, from the inhala- tion of arsenical vapour or dust are well known* Green flock papers which owe their delicate tint to an arsenical substance, Scheele's green, are injurious to the inmates of houses where they are used. Accidental poisoning has also oc- curred ft-om the mixture of arsenious acid with soot used for cleansing sheep. Much contro- versy has at times taken place respecting the effect of arsenic upon the palate; it is certain, the taste is very faint, but extreme irritation of the portions of the lining mucous membrane of the mouth and other parts, quickly follows its contact. The length of time after arsenic has been swallowed, that symptoms take to show themselves, varies much, depending in all probability upon the state of the stomach as to emptiness, or the reverse. Sometimes they appear in a few minutes, at other times not for hours. Poisoning by arsenic is distinguished by faintness, nausea, intense burning pain at the pit of the stomach, and vomiting of its ordinary contents, followed by that of a turbid brown fluid, and mucus, often streaked with blood; intense burning heat in the throat, and thirst; purging ensues, cold sweats, convul- sions, death. The eyes may become inflamed, but this is more general when the case is pro- longed, as it may be, in consequence of the small dose, or from other circumstances; in this case an eruption on the skin is not unfre- quent. The symptoms of com-se vary, parti- cularly that of pain, which occasionally has been almost entirely absent. It must, too, be remembered, that the symptoms of British cholera and those of arsenical poisoning, very closely resemble one another. When poisoning by arsenic is suspected, of course the first measm-e is to procure efficient medical aid. In the meantime, it is requisite to get as much of