Poultice

“ A linseed poultice being always needed hot, care should be taken that it is made so. Put the meal into the oven to heat for a quarter of an hour, and scald out with boiling water the basin in which it is to be mixed. Have also in readiness 2 plates in the oven, and a piece of tow, pulled to shape, or a portion of old linen, upon which to spread the poultice. Into the basin put as much linseed as will be required, and pour on boiling water, stirring vigorously with a knife, until the mass is of the consistency of thick porridge. ”

“ For linseed poultices, take the best grade of linseed meal, pour hot water over it until it becomes pasty. Charcoal and antiseptics are often mixed with it. When used as a poultice on the foot in nail pricks, always put on a poultice that will cover the whole foot. ”

“ The poultice may be a little bag containing bran and linseed meal mixed with hot water and applied warm to the tumefaction, being retained there by a square piece of calico, with holes for the ears and eyes, tied down the middle of the face and behind the ears. If the breathing is disturbed and noisy, the animal may be made to inhale steam from hot water in a bucket or from bran mash. ”

“ Then work a good poultice thus, take the content of one egg of rock salt, and burn it on a cloth so that it may be burnt through, then rub it to dust, and take then the yolks of three eggs and mingle with the dust, so that it may be so stiff that it will stick well, and let the head of the boil be then opened and the poultice be bound to the swelling as thou needest; then make the man a salve so that it may heal, take stichwort and lupins and red chervil and marche, pound them all together, and boil in fresh butter. ”

“ In ordinary cases a poultice made of bruised burdock root and elm flour, together with a tea made by steeping burdock root and drinking a pint a day; keeping the bowels regular, eating rye and Indian bread, and taking about a half teaspoonful of calcined magnesia dissolved in water, once a day, will effect a cure. The poultice 45should be made soft and applied fresh twice a day between two thin cloths.
A lady of wealth may get discouraged and give her babe to the care of another, whose babe may in consequence have lo be put in some charity-house or otherwise to board. ”

“ Erysipelas, Cranberry Poultice for.—"Take cranberries and stew them and make a poultice of them." This is a remedy that cannot be beaten for this disease. It gives relief in a very short time and saves the patient a great deal of suffering. If the whisky is used to wet the poultice it is much better, as it keeps the poultice moist longer. All that is necessary is simply to put on more whiskey and it will not be necessary to change the poultice so often. ”

“ To make a horse-poultice bag sew two pieces of soft tough material together in the form of a common shot-bag, closing both ends and sides; fasten a wide soft string to each corner, cut a straight slit in one face of the bag, and through it thrust the mixed poultice material until it is nearly full, when it can be secured over the seat of injury. Animals obtained from natives not unfrequently suffer from a peculiar description of gall, known as a “sitfast.” Examination shows an irregular piece of dry, hard, dead skin, surrounded by a border or channel of sore. ”

“ One of the most common methods of applying a dressing to the foot is poulticing. Usually resorted to on account of its warmth-retaining properties, the poultice may also be medicated. In fact, a poultice, strongly impregnated with perchloride of mercury or other powerful antiseptic, is a useful dressing in a case of a punctured foot, or a wise preliminary to an operation involving the wounding of the deeper structures. The poultice may consist of any material that serves to retain heat for the longest time. Meal of any kind that contains a fair percentage of oil is suitable. ”

“ It should be borne in mind that a common poultice—such as is made of linseed meal or bread—is merely a vehicle for the application of damp heat—a continuous fomentation, in fact—and has no specific curative action. A muslin bag filled with bran, or flannels dipped in hot water, have precisely the same effect, but are not so conveniently employed, as they have to be more frequently renewed. A poultice should always be thoroughly mixed and homogeneous in consistence throughout ”

“ It is well for a mother to know how to make a white bread poultice; and as the celebrated Abernethy was noted for his poultices, I will give you his directions, and in his very words:—"Scald out a basin, for you can never make a good poultice unless you have perfectly boiling water, then, having put in some hot water, throw in coarsely crumbled bread, and cover it with a plate. When the bread has soaked up as much water as it will imbibe, drain off the remaining water, and there will be left a light pulp. ”

“ They are apt to be allowed to get extremely dirty, and so, by carrying infective matter from the foot of one animal to that of another, undo the good that the warmth of the poultice is bringing about. The advantage of the ordinary sacking or canvas is that it may be cast aside after the application of each poultice. ”

“ The best application is immediately to apply a large hot white-bread poultice to the part, and to renew it every four hours; and, if there be much pain in the wound, to well foment the part, every time before applying the poultice, with a hot chamomile and poppy-head fomentation.
Scratches of a cat are best treated by smearing, and that freely and continuously for an hour, and then afterward at longer intervals, fresh butter on the part affected. If fresh butter be not at hand, fresh lard—that is to say, lard without salt—will answer the purpose. ”

“ The poultice just referred to should be [51] diligently applied at night, to insure success, and when the heat and tenderness and stiffness of motion have diminished, astringent lotions should be applied. Either the alum lotion or a strong decoction of oak bark—perhaps the alum dissolved in whiskey will do better than water, or the alum dissolved in a decoction of bark will answer better than either. This disease requires perseverance—the decoctions should be made very strong. After washing several times should there be watery matter on the heels or leg, wash it off with wafer and soap. ”

“ Then put on the poultice some lard or oil or vaseline to keep it from getting dry and hard, and to make it less likely to stick. It will be well to put on it a cover of thin muslin or mosquito netting, or tulle, or illusion, and then fold over like a broad hem the edges of both the covers. The poultice should be evenly spread about a quarter of inch in thickness 233and may be carried to the patient on a small tray or board, and if you are changing the poultice you should also have a small basin to carry away the old ones. ”

“ Another method is, to boil the corn, and give the horses the liquor in which it has been boiled; the result will be, that instead of six bushels in a crude state, three bushels, so prepared, will be found to answer, and to keep the animals in superior vigour and condition.
SORES AND BRUISES.
Over the whole sore, or where the part is bruised, or where there is a tendency to suppuration, a poultice should be applied and kept on by suitable bandages. The poultice may be made of any kind of meal, fine bran, bruised linseed, or of mashed turnips, carrots, &c. ”

“ For which purpose the common farinaceous poultice is the most eligible, made by soaking slices of bread in milk, and simmering them together over a gentle fire until they are reduced to the proper consistence, which ought to be such as to prevent its spreading farther than is designed, and yet not so hard as to occasion any mechanical irritation; the whole is then to be beat smooth with a spoon, and applied as warm as the patient’s feelings will readily admit. ”

“ It is a good plan to oil the face of the poultice with a feather, as this effectually keeps it from sticking to the skin, even if it is not well mixed, and it is better than to put the poultice into a muslin. ”

“ If there is the least appearance of inflammation, no time should be lost in applying a large bread-and-water poultice, or hot flannels repeatedly applied, or even leeches in good numbers may be put on at some distance from each other. ”

“ If, however, they are inflamed, hot, painful, with a red surface, and unusually large, a bread and water poultice must be applied every three or four hours, which will generally prevent either the formation of matter, or any other unpleasant consequence. ”

“ Bread poultices are less generally useful than those of linseed meal. They do not retain the heat nearly so well as those of linseed meal, and are chiefly used in cuts, wounds, or small abscesses; and also because they are so easily made. ”

“ In the worst and most extensively spread cases, poultices of a very cooling kind, particularly poultices of scraped carrots or scraped turnips, ought to be used day and night, both for the sake of their own action, and as preparatives to the action of the astringent application; and the whole course of treatment ought to aim at the abatement of the inflammatory action, previous to the stopping of the discharge. Nothing tends so much to prevent grease and swelling of the legs as frequent hand rubbing and cleansing the heels carefully as soon as a horse comes in from exercise or work. ”

“ An annual, 2-3 ft. high, rigid, branched, more or less hispid. Leaves 4-8 in., petioled ; lower lyrate, upper entire. Racemes naked. Flowers - in. diarn., bright yellow. Sepals spreading. Pods - in., subulate ; valves keeled, torulose ; cells 3-5-seeded. Seeds oblong.
Parts used:—The seeds.
Uses:—The seeds of this plant are used in medicine as poultice, being a useful and simple rubefacient and vesicant. Mustard poultices prove highly serviceable in cases of febrile and inflammatory diseases, internal congestions, spasmodic, neuralgic, and rheumatic affections. ”

“ In this case, poultices should be applied as warm as possible; the ingredients may be oatmeal, or biscuit powdered, honey and a little butter, warm and largely applied. When the swelling increases, grows red, and acquires a top, together with constant throbbing, it is a sign that matter is forming, which is the more confirmed by its growing soft. ”

“ It has been asserted that poultices are often used to conceal defects of treatment, a kind of refuge in ignorance of any more advantageous applications, and that they often do positive harm by inciting profuse, and consequently exhausting, suppuration, and, no doubt, it is true they favour the tendency to suppuration which may exist in particular instances, and that they will increase a suppurating discharge when the latter is already established.
Most remarkable results, however, follow the use of poultices in certain cases—of lupus, for example. ”

“ Poultices are generally prepared of bread and milk, to which are added oil, lard, or other unctuous matter, to prevent their adhesion to the parts inflamed. In large hospitals, the consumption of these articles for such purpose being very considerable, while the bread and milk are liable to become sour in warm weather, the following ingredients have, by Mr. ”

“ Warmth and evenness of temperature come next in importance. A little flannel jacket or cross-over, made of thick, new flannel, is as good as poultices, and should be put, and kept, on well into convalescence, when, of course, it must not be left off too suddenly. I do not say anything about medicine, actual poulticing, etc., because a distemper patient, in view of the complications which are always apt to arise in this disease, should be nursed under skilled veterinary direction. I only insist on the need for feeding up and warmth. ”

“ Heat is found to increase almost every action; and, therefore, in indolent ulcers, it is sometimes of use, especially for a few days after we begin the management of the sore, as it paves the way for the action of other agents, by beginning a change of the action. Poultices are the vehicle by which it is most frequently applied, and answers, in general, better than other forms. Fomentations are much used by many practitioners, who employ decoctions of different kinds of vegetables; but they have no superiority over poultices. ”

“ They are very skilful in their treatment of wounds, and many diseases. Their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of their plants and herbs is very great. They make excellent poultices from the bark of the bass and the slippery-elm. ”

“ Kelly used poultices of clay and wheat grass pulp on her lumps, somewhat like the warm castor oil poultices I used on my mother's arthritic deposits. Poultices not only feel very comforting, but they have the effect of softening up deposits and tumors so that a detoxifying, fasting body is more able to re absorb them. Poultices draw, pulling toxins out through the skin, unburdening the liver. ”

“ Wonderful poultry of the French-Flemish country, why take the trouble to be poultry? Why not stop short at eggs in the rising generation, and die out and have done with it? Parents of chickens have I seen this day, followed by their wretched young families, scratching nothing out of the mud with an air—tottering about on legs so scraggy and weak, that the valiant word drumsticks becomes a mockery when applied to them, and the crow of the lord and master has been a mere dejected case of croup. ”

“ The following method of treatment is practised by some of the most successful poulterers in the country. As soon as discovered, if in warm weather, remove the infected fowls to some well-ventilated apartment, or yard; if in winter, to some warm place; then give a dessert-spoonful of castor-oil; wash their heads with warm Castile-soap suds, and let them remain till next morning fasting. Scald for them Indian-meal, adding two and a half ounces of Epsom salts for ten hens, or in proportion for a less or larger number; give it warm, and repeat the dose in a day or two, if they do not recover. ”

“ No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of expression and so copious a language as common poultry. Take a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with little twitterings of complacency; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expressive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to lay she intimates the event by a joyous and easy soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life that of laying seems to be the most important ”