Night Sweats, Noise and Disease

Papers on Health
by John Kirk

(Page 12 of 20)

Night Sweats - This distressing symptom, which accompanies various illnesses, can in most cases be easily cured. The whole skin is to be sponged over at bedtime with cayenne lotion. This is best done under the bed-clothes. Acetic acid, the effective essence in vinegar, has an astonishing power in healing and stimulating the skin. When it is assisted by cayenne its healing power is very great indeed. The nerves are stimulated, the too open pores closed, the skin cleansed, and the whole system invigorated by such a mixture, and as a result the night sweats disappear. Even where the case is hopeless, much suffering may be prevented by the use of this mixture. In conjunction with other treatment, its use may even turn the scale towards recovery.

Noise and Disease - Perhaps nothing shows more the lack of human feeling in many people than the manner in which they inflict sore distress on the sick and dying by means of noise. Moreover, recovery is retarded, and has sometimes been wholly prevented, by nothing but a noise. It must be understood that talking, and also singing, which are delightful to some, become intolerable pain to the delicate and weak. They really are worn out by them. And the wearing out is real: it is a destruction of nerve substance, when the nerve of the patient is already too feeble. Shutting doors violently, and the endless "house noises," must be avoided. Even a long, loud prayer at the bedside of the sick is utterly out of place.

It may become necessary, in order to prevent such abuses, to exclude from the sick-room some who will be greatly offended thereby; but courage to defend a patient against well-meaning intruders is one essential qualification of a good nurse. Oil doors that squeak, fasten windows that rattle, but above all keep quiet the tongues that clatter. Let all whispering in the sick one's hearing be avoided. Speak quietly but distinctly, so that the patient may not think you are hiding anything from him. Wrap the coals in pieces of paper, so that they can be put on the fire by hand, avoiding the noise of shovel or tongs.

No one has a right to do what distresses others, and especially when they are sick. This principle should guide action. Acting thus will give untold rest and ease to the troubled.

Nostrils, The - The disease called Polypus, affecting the mouth or nostril with growths which are usually removed by force, is one of those troubles curable by proper use of vinegar or weak acetic acid. The extraction of the Anthozoa is painful, and we have ourselves seen them so completely cured, that it is a pity not to make very widely known a method of avoiding extraction. A small glass syringe or a "nasal douche" (rubber is best) should be got, such as may easily be used for syringing the nostrils, or gums, if the growth be on these. Syringe the growths well with vinegar or acetic acid, so diluted with water as only very slightly to smart when it is applied.

Use this slightly warm, and force it well up the nostril, so that it goes even back into the throat. This should be done for a considerable time: not so as to feel painful, but long enough to produce a decided effect, which remains on ceasing. Dry the nostrils with a little soft lint or clean rag, and force in a little fine almond oil. Do all this twice a day for a fortnight at least. In a bad case, a bran poultice may be applied to the back of the head and neck, coming down over the spine between the shoulders.

Similar growths on other membranes, if accessible, may be cured by acid in a similar way.

This treatment is excellent for an ordinary cold in the head.

Nourishment - Nothing is more required in healing than properly to nourish the enfeebled body. In its commencement proper nourishment demands a proper mixture of food and saliva. In fever, if there be little or no saliva present, food requiring much saliva to fit it for digestion only injures. This is the case with so-called rich foods, especially. Excessive thirst usually marks this deficiency of saliva. Always consider carefully the flow of saliva before feeding a patient in a weak state. Get the mouth to "water" somewhat before giving food. We have seen a cold cloth changed several times over the stomach start the flow of saliva almost miraculously, relieving the thirst, and prepare for nourishment which could not be taken before.

Going further into the matter, we see that very likely the stomach requires assistance to dispose of even well-salivated food. There may be a lack of gastric juice. In this case, frequent and small quantities of hot water supplied to the stomach will greatly help it. A wineglassful of hot water taken every ten minutes for two, four, or ten hours will be sufficient (See Digestion; Indigestion). It is well to think ten times of the readiness of the system to digest, for once of the food to be taken. If the stomach be either burning hot or cold and chilly, let it be cooled or warmed, as the case may be. Either use cold towels or give hot water as above, as the case demands. When it is brought into something like a natural state of feeling, you may then give food. The hot water will often not only prepare the stomach, but will start the flow of saliva in the mouth, and that even when the cooling cloth has failed to do so.

A medical man will, at times, forbid water, however thirsty the patient may be. He is not unlikely to be laboring under a serious mistake. It may be just the want of water which is causing the very symptoms which he thinks to cure by withholding it. We never saw anything but suffering arise from withholding water from the thirsty.

Milk is a prime element in nourishing the weak. Mixed with its own bulk of boiling water, or even with twice as much, it is immensely more easy to digest. The simple water is of vast importance, and the milk mixed with boiling water is quite a different substance for digestion from the fresh pure milk. It is better to have a teaspoonful of milk and water really digested than a pint of rich milk overloading the stomach.

Many people put lime-water into the milk to make it digestible. In doing so they put a difficulty in the way, in the shape of the lime. If one tries to wash his hands in "hard" water, he sees how unfit that water is to do the proper work of water in the blood and tissues of the body. Now, it is not difficult to meet this evil where the only water to be had has a great deal of lime in solution. Boiling this water makes it deposit much of its lime. If a very, very small bit of soda is mixed with it in the boiling, it lets down its lime more quickly and completely.

Alcoholic drinks - wine, porter, or ale - are often given as means of nourishment. They are hurtful in the extreme, as the spirit contained in them spoils, so far as it acts, both the saliva and the gastric juice. Rum and milk, sack whey, and other such preparations are equally bad, and have killed many a patient.

While suitable nourishment is necessary for the sick, great care should be taken to avoid giving too much. Often the amount of food the patient requires or can assimilate is exceedingly small. Injudicious attempts to "keep up the strength" by forcing down food that cannot be digested often destroy the little that remains, and remove the only hope of cure. (See also Assimilation; Biscuits and Water; Blood; Bread; Buttermilk; Child-Bearing; Constipation; Diet; Drinks; Dyspepsia; Foods; Heartburn; Infants' Food.)

Printed by Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport. 1904.