The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    may be much diminished by boiling it for half an hour shortly before it is drunk and also by filtering through animal charcoal. It should be always borne in mind that if cholera, cholera infantum, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, or dysentery, ap- pear in the members of a house- hold without obvious cause, the chances are, at least two to one, that there is something wrong with the water supply, the milk supply, or the drainage of the house itself. Every vessel, large or small, used in keeping water, should be cleansed thoroughly and often, or you may get living animals in the water, or dead animal matters, which may be far worse for the health. Water- vessels should always be covered,not tightly, however, so as to keep out the air, but so as to^ exclude dust. No cistern or butt should have a waste-pipe connected with a drain or sewer, for the poisonous air from the sewer or drain will find its way thus into the water, wall be ab- sorbed by it and will cause it to be poisonous and unwholesome. In the same way the bad air from a water-closet may spoil the water of the cistern supplying it. Water for drinking should never be kept in close cellars, in badly-aired or crowded rooms, or in the chambers of sick persons. For use by in- valids, fresh water should be drawn whenever it is wanted for drinking purposes. WATER BLISTERS See Herpes. WATER-BRASH, OR PYROSIS, is the rejection from the stomach of a quantity (varying from a few mouthfuls to as much as a pint or more) of a clear, tasteless fluid. The symptoms are a feeling of tight- ness, not unaccompanied with pain, across the stomach and a sense of nausea which often amounts to a desire to vomit, with difficulty re- pressed . The condition is due to the hurried bolting of food that needs thorough mastication, or to dietetic error. The avoidance of either habit will preclude the trouble. But if the symptoms continue In spite of greater care in eating and diet, then two tablespoonfuls of the following mixture thrice a day before meals and continued for a few days will effect relief :—Car- bonate of bismuth, 5 grains ; car- bonate of magnesia, 10 grains ; mucilage of gum, 1 drachm ; pep- permint water to one ounce : shake well. WATER CLOSETS Earth should always be used instead of water in country places ; it is preferable in every way. To keep water-closets moderately safe, the first thing is ventilation of the sewers ; if not, they ventilate them- selves into the house by means of the water-closets. A pipe should therefore lead from the house sewer to the highest point of the building. From time to time the pipes and traps ought to be examined, to see that the former are entire and not leaking and that the traps are in working order. Some disinfectant, fluid or solid, should be used at least once every day. The best is carbolic acid, in powder or in solu- tion. WATER DRESSING This is the application to a sore or wound of a piece of lint, soft linen, or charpie, saturated with water and covered over with oiled silk, or thin india-rubber cloth, to prevent evaporation or the escape of moisture into the surrounding bed-clothes. The lint should be