ose in
such a manner, that when one part of this membrane is affected with
inflammation, it is easily communicated to the rest. When the disorder
is of this slight kind, it may easily be cured without medicine, by only
abstaining from meat, eggs, broth, and wine; from all food that is
sharp, fat, and heavy. Little or no supper should be eaten, but the
person should drink freely of an infusion of barley, or of elder
flowers, with the addition of a third or fourth part of milk. Bathing
the feet in warm water before going to bed, will dispose the patient to
sleep. In colds of the head, the steam of warm water alone, or of water
in which elder flowers or some mild aromatic herbs have been boiled,
will generally afford speedy relief. These also are serviceable in colds
which affect the breast. Hot and close rooms are very hurtful in colds,
as they tend to impede respiration; and sitting much over the fire
increases the disorder. Spermaceti is often taken in colds and coughs,
which must from its greasy nature impair the digestive faculty, and
cannot operate against the cause of a cold; though the cure of it, which
is effected in due time by the economy of nature, is often ascribed to
such medicines as may rather have retarded it. Whenever a cold does not
yield to the simple treatment already described, good advice should be
procured, as a neglected cold is often the origin of very serious
disorders.--A few observations on the nature of the diet and drink
proper for sickly persons, will be necessary at the close of this
article, for the information of those who occasionally undertake the
care of the afflicted. As the digestion of sick persons is weak, and
very similar to that of children, the diet suited to the latter is
generally proper for the former, excepting in the two great classes of
diseases called putrid and intermittent fevers. In case of putrid fever
no other food should be allowed, during the first weeks of recovery,
than the mildest vegetable substances. When recovering from agues and
intermittent fevers, animal jellies, and plain animal food, with as
little vegetable as possible, is the proper diet. Meat and meat broth,
generally speaking, are not so well adapted for the re-establishment of
health and strength, as more simple diets. Flesh being the food most
used by old and young at all other times, is consequently that from
which their distempers chiefly proceed, or at least it nourishes those
disorders which oth