A companion to the medicine chest; or, plain directions for the employment of the various medicines, etc. contained in it : with the properties and doses of such as are more generally used in domestic medicine; to which are added, a brief description of the symptoms and treatment of diseases directions for restoring suspended animation and various mechanical auxiliaries to medicine

Front matter

Mfii

A COMPANION

TO THE

Preface

So many Works have lately appeared on the subject of Domestic Medicine, that some apology appears necessary for adding to the number. The books hitherto entitled Directories, or Companions to the Medicine Chest, for the most part, consist merely of a simple catalogue of drugs, with vague directions for their administration in specified disorders. The object of this work is to remedy this inconvenience, and to enable unprofessional persons to obtain, at one glance, information regarding the effects and uses of the substances employed in medicine, and the mode of combining them for administration in the various diseases in which they have, by long experience, been found useful ; as well as to distinguish such diseases as are dangerous in their nature, and rapid in their progress, in

IV

PREFACE.

* order that proper assistance may be had without allowing that delay to take place which is so frequently the cause of many fatal results. This little work, divested as much as possible of technical and scientific phraseology, is therefore intended for the use of travellers, and those humane characters who, residing at a distance from a duly qualified medical practitioner, devote a portion of their time to the relief and mitigation of the complicated misfortunes of disease and poverty among their poor neighbours. It is, however, earnestly recommended not to place too much confidence on books of Domestic Medicine, especially in such cases as are of a serious nature, but always to have recourse to the advice of an able physician as early as it can be obtained.

136 New Bond Street.

Contents

PAGE

INTRODUCTION, EXPLAINING THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES USED IN MEDICINE, AND THE DOSES ACCORDING TO THE AGE AND CIRCUMSTANCES

OF THE PATIENT vii