DIPHTHERIA.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 520, 15 May 1880, Page 2

DIPHTHERIA.

Suggestions for the treatment of diphtheria, in cases where medical advice may not bo readily obtainable, are sent to ns from various parts of the district as worthy of publication. The remedies so . offered have been tried beneficially, and we have therefore the less hesitation in placing them before the public at a time when cases are numerous, when medical advice is difficult to get, and when apprehension is felt in many households. The following additional suggestions are recommended as safe and beneficial : Diphtheria is known by a large lump under each car, and on looking inside the month tiro back part of the throat is covered with largo white specs. On seeing this the child should be carefully kept in a room free from draughts, given some purgative, as much milk to drink as he likes, steam his throat with boiling vinegar, which can be done by putting a funnel over the cup which contains the vinegar and the pipe of the funnel in the month. This softens the throat, and is good for anj r kind of. sore throat. Then paint the throat wiih alum water, that is, alum dissolved in water —make it strong —take a camel’s hair brush, or piece of stick, tie a piece of wadding round the end of it, dip Ibis in the a’tun water, put it down tbo throat over the white specs, backwards and forwards, two or three times. These remedies repeat- every ten .minutes or quarter of an hour, until the spots disappear. Gargle the throat with vinegar, port wine, myrrh, and water, mixed together, two or three times a day—if very bad, every quarter of an hour. An emetic is good, particularly if the complaint lasts long. Another, and they say, a certain cure, quite recently discovered, is to blister the upper part of the chest, so as to make it quite tender, when they say the specks will leave the throat and appear on the tender part, where 11103' can be easily got at and cured. Burnt sulphur, inhaled the same wa}' as the boiled vinegar, is another cure for sore throat, or a small quantity of sulphur put on the tongue and swallowed. These remedies are intended only if a doctor or chemist is not at baud. If they are, they ought to be at once consulted.