Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/70

sti CON such accidents. To obviate as far as possible all infection, we would recommend to those who are oblig- ed to attend patients, never to ap- proach them fasting ; and, while they are in their apartment, to avoid both eating and drinking, and also the swallowing of their own saliva. Nor will it be altogether useless to chew myrrh, cinnamon, and simi- lar drags, which promote a plenti- ful discharge from the mouth. As soon as a person has returned from visiting an infected patient, he ought immediately to wash his mouth and hands with vinegar ; to change his clothes, carefully ex- posing those he has worn to the fresh air; and then to drink a warm infusion of sage, or other aromatic herbs, which tends to open the pores, and expel, by means of a gentle perspiration, the pestilential virus, if any should have incorporated with the mass of his fluids. It will also be of consi- derable service to those who are employed about sick persons, fre- quently to smell vinegar and cam- phor, or to fumigate the apartments with tobacco, the pungency of which accelerates the circulation of the blood, and is believed to pre- vent infeaion, by attra&ing the contagious effluvia. Contagion, a disorder peculiar to cattle, more commonly called Distcmpkr, to which we refer. See also Stables. CONVULSION, a disease at- tended with irregular and unnatu- ral contraction of the muscles, without sleep. It differs from epi- lepsy, in being accompanied nei- ther with any mental affection, nor with a state of torpor. The causes of convulsions are. not always evident, though they generally depend on a certain ir- CON rftabilily of the nervous system. — Delicate hysteric women, and men disposed to hypochondriasis, are equally subject to this disorder. Frequently, however, convulsive symptoms take place in conse- quence of wounds, irritations ot the stomach and intestines, worms, poisons, violent cathartics, eme- tics. &c. "When infants are attacked with convulsions which threaten their live-, the safest expedient will be to immerse them into tepid or milk- warm water, and keep them 4 - in that situation, by adding gra- dually a little hot water, so as to preserve an equal temperature of Q6 or 08 degrees, till medical as- sistance can be procured. Although we are not inclined to give implicit credit to anonymous authorities, yet we think the fol- lowing particulars worthy of inser- tion. A correspondent in the 22d volume of the Gentleman's Mopa- zine, justly observes, that convul- sions in children, before dentition, generally proceed from acrid, irri- tating" humors produced in the first passages, by living chiei - ly on acescent food ; such fits be- ing preceded by gripings, green- stools, &:c. He therefore directs one ounce of white sugar candy to be reduced to line powder, and 120 drops, or two drams, of the 1 i - oii of aniseed, to be dropped upon it : these should be rubbed toge- ther in a mortar, then mixed with an ounce of spermaceti, in powder. The dose is twenty grains, to be given in a little milk drawn from the breast, and to be repeated every three or four hours, or oftener, if the uneasiness of the child should require it. To judge from the na- ture of these ingredients, we are induced to believe., tliLii such a paration,