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Domestic Medicine : or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and simple Medicines
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INFUSIONS.

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Attenuating Gargle.—Take of water six ounces ; honey, one ounce ;nitre, a drachm and a half. Mix them.—-This cooling gargle may beused either in the inflammatory quinsy, or in fevers, for cleansiug thetongue and fauces.

Common Gargle.—Take of rose-water, six ounces; syrup of cloveJuly-flowers, half an ounce; spirit of vitriol, a sufficient quantity to giveit an agreeable sharpness. Mix them.—This gargle, besides cleansingthe tongue and fauces, acts as a gentle repellent, and will sometimes re-move a slight quinsy.

Detergent Gargle.—Take of the emollient gargle, a pint; tincture of

myrrh, an ounce; honey, two ounces. Mix them__When exulcerations

require to be cleansed, or the excretion of tough viscid saliva promoted,this gargle will be of service.

Emollient Gargle.—Take an ounce of marshmallow roots, and two orthree figs : boil them in a quart of water till near one half of it be con-sumed ; then strain out the liquor.—If an ounce of honey, and half anounce of water of ammonia, be added to the above, it will then be anexceeding good attenuating gargle—This gargle is beneficial in fevers,where the tongue and fauces are rough and parched, to soften these parts,and promote the discharge of saliva.—The learned and accurate Sir JohnFringle observes, that in the inflammatory quinsy, or strangulation of thefauces, little benefit arises from the common gargles; that such as are ofan acid nature do more harm than good, by contracting the emunctoriesof the saliva and mucus, and thickening those humours ; that a decoctionof figs in milk and water has a contrary effect, especially if some sal-am-moniac be added, by which the saliva is made thinner, and the glandsbrought to secrete more freely ; a circumstance always conducive to thecure.

INFUSIONS.

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Vegetables yield nearly the same properties to water by infusionas by decoction; and though they may require a longer time to give outtheir virtues in this way, yet it has several advantages over the other;since boiling is found to dissipate the finer parts of many bitter andaromatic substances, without more fully extracting their medicinal prin-ciples.—The author of the New Dispensatory observes, that even fromthose vegetables which are weak in virtue, rich infusions may be obtained,by returning the liquor upon fresh quantities of the subject, the waterloading itself more and more with the active parts; and that these loadedinfusions are applicable to valuable purposes in medicine; as they con-tain in a small compass the finer, more subtile, and active principles ofvegetables, in a form readily miscible with the fluids of the human body.

Bitter Infusion.—Take tops of the lesser centaury and camomile flowers,of each half an ounce ; yellow rind of lemon and orange peel, carefullyfreed from the inner white part, of each two drachms. Cut them in smallpieces, and infuse them in a quart of boiling water.—For indigestion,weakness of the stomach, or want of appetite, a tea-cupful of this infusionmay be taken twice or thrice a-day.

Infusion of Cinchona.—To an ounce of the Peruvian bark, in powder,add four or five table-spoonfuls of brandy, and a pint of boiling water.Let them infuse for two or three days.—This is one of the best prepara-tions of the bark for weak stomachs. In disorders where the conoborat

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