THE LEMON IN MEDICINE AS A CURATIVE OF DISEASES.

The Lemon is the fruit of the citrus limonum, a native tree of India, but now naturalized in all warm climates. It is supposed that the Greeks and Romans were unacquainted with the lemon, which only became known to Europeans at the time of the Crusades. To-day it is known the world over and its medical uses are numerous.

Scurvy.—One of the most beneficial applications of lemon is the use of its juice for the prevention and cure of scurvy. For this purpose ships destined for long voyages are always provided with a supply of the concentrated juice or (its equivalent) lime juice; from one to two ounces should be given every two to four hours diluted with an equal amount of water.

Fevers.—Next to its use as an anti-scorbutic (a cure for scurvy) lemon juice is most valuable as a drink (in febrile affections) in which the thirst is urgent and the bowels are not disordered. This is usually the case in eruptive and periodical fevers such as—

Scarlet Fever, Malarial Diseases (Chills and Fever).—Lemon-juice furnishes a most agreeable and refreshing beverage and proves an admirable refrigerant.

It may be given with sweetened water in the shape of lemonade. This is an old English remedy, formerly called the "King's Cup," made as follows:

Add two lemons sliced, and two ounces of sugar to two pints of boil- ing water; allowing this to digest till cold, when it is ready for use in ounce doses ad libitum. Or lemon-juice may be added to the mildly nutritive drinks, such as gum water, Irish moss tea, barley water, and so forth.

Rheumatism and Gout.—-Lemon-juice has been used with beneficial effects in acute and chronic rheumatic affections. According to statement of a noted physician "the sensible operation of the remedy consists in reducing the force and frequency of the pulse, a mitigation of severity of the attack and in securing an early relief from pain."

Prescribed in doses of one or two ounces of juice (freely diluted) three or four times a day. This is generally well tolerated, yet sometimes occasions severe griping or diarrhoea.

Coughs and Colds, Hoarseness.—The following will be found soothing and healing in most ordinary coughs and colds:

        Whole flaxseed ......................... 2 ounces
        Water, boiling ......................... 1 pint
        Juice of two lemons.
        Sugar.

Pour the boiling water on the flaxseed, in a suitable vessel, let it steep three hours, pour off the clear liquid, add the lemon juice and sweeten to taste. Ice it for drinking. Dose, one ounce.

Jaundice.—Lemon-juice in tablespoonful doses several times a day is reputed to be a remedy for jaundice produced by congestion of the liver.

Hemorrhages.—It not only assuages thirst, but directly counteracts the tendency to loss of blood. Administered as lemonade in one- or two-ounce doses as cold as possible.

Biliousness.—The use of lemon-juice, in doses of one or two ounces diluted with hot or cold water, three or four times a day is an invaluable remedy. It is supposed to act as an eliminator of bile.

Erysipelas.—In this affection rest, saline laxatives, low diet and cooling drinks are the elements of treatment in mild and simple cases. A very refreshing and agreeable way of prescribing a cooling drink and at same time obtaining valuable diaphoretic and diuretic effects is by administering the following:

Take one drachm (60 grains) of bicarbonate of potassium and water four fluid ounces. Make a solution, of which add a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful of lemon-juice diluted with a tablespoonful of water and drink during effervescence every three or four hours.

The Grippe.—As a mild diaphoretic and as acting on the kidneys, and to allay restlessness and watchfulness in fever use the following:

Lemon-juice and water, equal parts, enough to make four ounces; bicarbonate of potassium one drachm; water, three ounces.

Make and keep in separate solutions. To be mixed in tablespoonful doses several times daily and taken while effervescing.

Vomiting.—The effervescing draught given under erysipelas (which see) is one of the best remedies for allaying nausea or a tendency to sickness.

Dropsy.—Mild and sustained diaphoresis is entitled to special favor. The skin must be brought into a state of moderate excitement by external warmth—by hot baths twice a day—at same time administering hot lemonade, after which put patient to bed. Free perspiration will follow, and an improvement in the quantity and quality of the urine, and a material subsidence of the dropsy or edema will ensue.

Asthma.—The administration of tablespoonful-doses of lemon-juice m a glassful of any of the mineral waters, three times a day, has been productive of manifestly good results.

As an Antidote in Alkaline Poisoning.—In cases of poisoning by the alkalies the vegetable acids are their antidotes, and the most convenient, easily procurable acidulous substances are, in general, vinegar or lemon-juice.

As an Anti-Narcotic.—In poisoning by narcotic substances, as opium, lemon-juice may be administered after the poison has been vomited or removed from the stomach, to counteract the effects.

Syphilis.—In some cases of syphilis a cachetic or scorbutiform condition of the blood is apt to obtain, and in such fresh lemon-juice several times daily has been found a valuable adjunct to the regular treatment outlined for this disease.

Headache.—A remedy which may very often be given with advantage for severe forms of headache is bromide of potassium in five- or ten-grain doses twice daily, followed by an ounce or two of effervescing lemonade, as prescribed under "The Grippe" (which see). If not very severe the effervescing draught (alone) will be found efficient and secure prompt relief.

To Remove Tan from Face.—Rubbing the half of a cut lemon on face at night or bathing the face with lemon-juice, allowing same to dry, and washing it off carefully with castile soap and warm water every morning, is said to have proved very efficacious.

Corns.—A slice of lemon held in place by bandage over offending hard corn, or placed between the toes for soft corns for several successive days, is an old well-tried standard remedy.

Itching of Anus or Scrotum.—Lemon-juice has been used with advantage as a local application in itching of the genitalia (privates) and anus.

Diphtheritic Sore Throat and Gangrenous Sore Mouth.—Lemon-juice has been used with striking advantage as a local application (gargle and mouth wash) in these diseased conditions; also in other varieties of gangrene from constitutional causes.

SALT IN MEDICINE AS A CURATIVE FOR DISEASE.

History.—Salt is a necessary and indispensable seasoning of our food, and as such must doubtless have been known to and employed by the first individuals of our race. The earliest notice of it occurs in the writings of Moses (Genesis, xix: 26; Leviticus, ii: 13) and Homer (Iliad, lib., ix: 214). It has received various names, such as common salt, culinary salt and chloride of sodium, and so forth.

Salt and the Blood.—It serves some important and essential uses in the animal economy. It is employed by the people of all nations, from the most refined to the most barbarous. It is an invariable constituent of the healthy blood.

In moderate quantities it promotes the appetite, assists digestion and assimilation.

Salt a Tonic.—In some diseases the moderate use of salt produces the effect of a tonic. It acts as a stimulant to the mucous membranes, the absorbent vessels and glands.

For External Application.—Salt is used for various external applications. Thus, a saturated solution, applied with friction, is employed as a counter-irritant in glandular enlargements and chronic diseases of the joints.

Stimulant.—As a stimulant it is rubbed on the chest in fainting, and so forth.

Hemorrhage.—On the sudden occurrence of bleeding or vomiting of blood it is usefully resorted to to stop the flow, in the dose of a teaspoonful, taken dry.

Stomach Pains or Gastrodynia.—Salt in a teaspoonful dose, dry, is used in some cases with considerable advantage.

Malaria (Ague).—In the course of experiments made in Paris, France, common salt in half-ounce doses has been found very efficient and second only to quinine, but the dose being very bulky causes vomiting in many cases. But the suggestion is a valuable one, where quinine cannot be administered.

Sore Eyes.—A small pinch of salt (about three grains) added to an ounce of clear, filtered boiled water makes a very soothing and beneficial eye-lotion. Apply with a small tube or dropper several times daily.

Emetic.—To produce vomiting the dose of salt is one or two tablespoonfuls in a tumblerful of water. A teaspoonful of mustard flour assists its action.

Purgative.—For producing evacuations from the bowels it is employed in the form of an enema. One or two tablespoonfuls of common salt dissolved in a pint or quart of starch, water forms a very useful clyster.

As Worm Cure.—For this purpose it is administered in large doses by the mouth, or, when the worms are lodged in the rectum, a strong solution is administered in the form of an enema.

Felon.—Take common salt, roast it on a hot stove till dry as possible. Take a teaspoonful of it, also a teaspoonful of pulverized castile soap and a teaspoonful of Venice turpentine; mix them well into a poultice and apply to the felon. Renew twice daily and in four or five days the felon will open, release the pent-up matter and get well.

Toothache Cure Infallible.—Pulverize and mix alum and common salt in equal quantities; wet a small piece of cotton and cause the mixture to adhere to it; place in the hollow tooth. A sensation of coldness will be first produced, which will gradually subside and with it the tormenting toothache.

Sprains and Bruises.—Half fill a bottle with common salt; add good brandy till nearly full. Shake it well and allow to settle. Bathe the part with a soft linen cloth or sponge.

Hives.—Ordinary salt baths are of great value, promptly relieving the terrible itching. Two ounces of salt are added to about thirty gallons of warm water.

Heartburn.—A few grains of table salt allowed to dissolve in the mouth and frequently repeated will ensure prompt relief.

Sore Throat.—Gargling the throat with a weak solution of salt and water will often cure this difficulty without further treatment.

Catarrh.—A warm, weak solution of salt and water (a half to one teaspoonful of salt to a tumblerful of warm water) sniffed up the nose night and morning oftentimes leads to a speedy cure in mild cases.

Diarrhoea and Dysentery.—In these affections salt has been satisfactorily administered in combination with lemon juice. A half drachm of salt to a tablespoonful or two of lemon-juice diluted, and repeated every two hours till relieved.

Fits, Apoplexy, Convulsions, and so forth.—Salt placed on tongue dry acts admirably in these affections.

Cholera Morbus.—Salt solution by the mouth and as enemata is strongly recommended for this disease.

General Administration.—Common salt in small doses acts as a stimulant tonic and anthelmintic or worm cure; in larger ones as a purgative and emetic. It certainly promotes digestion, and the almost universal animal appetency for it proves it to be a salutary stimulus in health. When taken in larger quantities than usual with food it is useful in some forms of dyspepsia, and, by giving greater tone to the digestive organs in weakly children, may correct the disposition to generate worms. On the sudden occurrence of hemoptysis or vomiting of blood it is usefully resorted to as an astringent in the dose of a teaspoonful, taken dry, and often proves successful in stopping the flow of blood.

Local Application.—Externally applied in solution it is stimulant, and may be used either locally or generally. Locally it is sometimes employed as a fomentation in sprains and bruises; and as a general external application it forms the salt-water bath, a valuable remedy as a tonic and excitant in depraved conditions of the system, occurring especially in children, and supposed to be dependent on the scrofulous diathesis. A pound of salt dissolved in four gallons of water, forms a solution of about the strength of sea-water, and suitable for a bath.

Inward Uses.—It is frequently used as an ingredient in stimulating enemata. The dose, as a tonic, is from ten grains to a drachm; as a cathartic, though seldom used for that purpose, from two drachms to half an ounce. In doses of from half an ounce to an ounce, dissolved in four or five times its weight of water, it frequently proves a prompt and efficient emetic, invigorating rather than depressing the powers of the system. When employed as a clyster it may be used in the amount of from one to three tablespoonfuls dissolved in a pint of water.

LIGHT CURE.

Few maladies have caused more apprehension than lupus. Its victims often suffer a living death. While visiting her native country, Queen Alexandra, of England, learned of Dr. Finsen, a Danish physician, who had discovered a cure for the dread disease. The Queen introduced it into the London Hospital, where it has been tried with invariable success. Since its introduction the hospital has had several patients, all of whom have been dismissed as cured. The cure consists in an exposure of the patient to the concentrated rays of a powerful light. The rays emanate from an electrical machine, two or three of which have been added to the hospital since the introduction of the first, at the expense of the Queen, and all of them are producing the wonderful cures effected by the first.


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