Our home doctor. Domestic and botanical remedies simplified and explained for family treatment. With a treatise upon suspended animation, the danger of burying alive, and directions for restoration

Front matter

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

OUR HOME DOCTOR.

DOMESTIC AND BOTANICAL REMEDIES

Preface

This book is intended for the people, — the farmer, the mechanic, and the laboring man ; the bone, muscle, heart, and lungs of the nation, in whose integrity, good sense, and judgment we have great confidence, — but not to the exclusion of the educated or professional classes. We know there are several family medical books in the market, but, as regards placing them in households there are in most cases serious objections ; such as their large size, price, scientific terms used, and, more especially, because of the description and method of treatment of certain diseases, information about which is highly improper to be placed in families where it can be read by the young of both sexes. This objection alone has in many instances excluded such books from the home circle. We have, therefore, avoided these objectionable features, and endeavored to render this volume suitable for any family library, where fathers and sons may peruse it for reason and reflection, and mothers and daughters can consult it with propriety and profit.

This book is not intended to do away with physicians, for our readers will see that we advise employing them in all difficult and dangerous cases. We hope to give such information, by describing the symptoms of diseases, and directing such treatment as will enable intelligent men and women to care for the lesser ills of the family, by using domestic remedies ; these are cheap, simple, safe, and effective, and will often relieve the sufferer speedily, avoid delay, save the journey after a doctor, and the ex-

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VI PREFACE.

pense of his bill. Such cases as can be treated only by a physician or surgeon we have omitted.

We hold it a self-evident truth, that every individual is intrusted with the care of himself, physically and intellectually, and has a right to all the knowledge he can acquire, upon all subjects, medicine, law, and theology not excepted ; for, the more extended his information, the better he is prepared for the duties of life. Knowledge of ourselves is one of the first demands of Nature, and is to woman, above everything, of vital importance.

Multitudes of young men and women begin life in a deplorable state of ignorance, disregarding the laws of health. The natural result is the greatest suffering and disappointment, for which the parents to a great extent are responsible. We earnestly hope our advice will reach and benefit that class.

We discountenance the use of mineral medicines and powerful drugs, and some of the evil results which follow their use have been pointed out.

Regardless of the profession and their divine right, — which consists in writing prescriptions in Latin, thereby blinding the people, and keeping them in ignorance of the medicines they are taking, — our aim has been to give, in plain English, such information as has heretofore been held as exclusive by' a few. Here is a case in point : A Boston doctor went to an adjoining town in haste to see a patient, wrote a prescription (in Latin), and sent, the gardener to Boston to have it put up. Upon his return, the master of the house examined the articles called for in the prescription, and was enraged, as they were all in the house in quantities, and were as follows : —

Latin. English.

R. Olei Terebinthinae, § iv. Spirits Turpentine, 4 ounces. Pulv. Carbonas Ligni, § ij. Fine Charcoal, 2 ounces. Humuli Lupuli, S viii. Hops, 8 ounces.

PREFACE. Vll

While writing this work we have consulted many authors, to all of whom we tender our thanks, whether we accepted or rejected their views, for we often learn more by rejection than by adoption.

The latter part of this work is devoted to the subject of suspended animation and resuscitation, — a theme which we think must interest all thinking persons.

Trusting that we have contributed to the general stock of knowledge beneficial to humanity, we will abide the judgment of our readers.

With pleasure we extend our cordial acknowledgment to Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York, for twenty-eight plates of illustration in this work, from J. Dorman Steele's Human Physiology, from No. 4 to 32, inclusive.

The Author.

Fig.

SKELETON OF THE HUMAN FORM.

THE HUMAN FORM.

The skeleton, which is composed of about two hundred bones, is the frame. The number of bones varies in youth and manhood, several of those which are separate at birth uniting and becoming one in after-life. For example, the bones of the lower part of the spinal column, the sacrum, and four little bones unite and become one ; also the bones of the head, or cranium, which are separate in infancy, and the edges of which can be lapped in childbirth, unite as the frame becomes mature, and form one firm, globular cavity of bone. This latter, instead of being composed of one solid thickness, has two plates, between which is a fine, spongy texture of bony substance, which arrangement clearly demonstrates the wisdom of the great Creator and Architect. In the first place, the cranium is much lighter ; in the second, it is a better protection to the brain, possessing greater power of resisting blows and injuries, than if solid ; and in the third, it allows the enlargement of the bones as the brain grows with advancing age.

Bones differ in their formation according to the purposes they are' to serve : some are for lightness, others for strength, some are flat and irregular ; but evety one is governed by a due proportion to the others, so that from any one bone, a veiy exact measurement may be made of the dimensions of its original occupant.

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OUR HOME DOCTOR.

The bones are larger at their ends, to afford a better bearing for the joints ; they are also spongy in their structure, and are thereby able to sustain sudden weight or

Fig. 2.

Fig- 3

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The thigh-bone sawed lengthwise, to show its hollow cavity and spongy ends.

A thin slice of bone magnified. Bones in the body are not dry, dead things, bat moist, living structures, covered with a membrane called periosteum.

fall without fracture. The long bones are hollow, which gives them greater strength, and allows a chamber for the marrow, in which to perform its numerous and important functions.

THE HUMAN FORM.