Powders - Victorian Health and Medicine

POWDERS. - The powder is one of the forms of administering medicine, and employed when the medicament is too bulky in itself to admit of being made into a pill, and when a quicker action is desired than could have been obtained by giving the medicine in a form which would take several hours to dissolve in the stomach.

Powders are always objectionable modes of giving physic, not only from the size they are sometimes compelled to be - from the subtle lightness of the drug - but from the difficulty of disguising for children, or making palatable so large a quantity of such unsavoury substances. Bu as the form of the powder is a necessity, and not a choice, the only alternative is to render it as little nauseous as possible; and as children are generally the recipients of this preparation, it is much better to practise a little harmless deception, than, by mixing it before them, lead to tears and struggles, in which half the medicine is lost, the child made suspicious of a spoon, disgusted with jam that tastes of physic, and irritated by what it considers a tyrannical injustice.

To avoid this, the powder, in the first instance, should be made as small as is compatible with the effect desired, and having secretly mixed it with a little brown sugar in a cup, the child should be permitted to eat it dry; and if he is allowed to hold the folded paper in his hand, with the luxury of burning it when he has eaten the sugar, his satisfaction is equal to his triumph, and the effect of the medicine all the more certain, from the confidence with which it has been taken.

The powders most frequently employed are those of an aperient, a febrifuge, and diaphoretic nature, and sometimes of an emetic character; but in the latter case they are invariably dissolved in water before taking - a mode of mixing that, when minerals are given, cannot be adopted, as such articles fall to the bottom of the vessel, and are lost to the patient.

Aperient powder for an adult.

1. Take of-

Jalap in powder . . . 15 grains.
Cream of tartar . .. 30 grains.

Mix well, and add

Calomel . . . . . . . 4 grains.

2. Take of -

Jalap . . . . . . . 15 grains.
Scammony . . . . . 8 grains.
Ginger in powder . . 5 grains.
Antimonial powder . . 6 grains.

Mix. Either of these may he taken in a little sugar made into a paste by a few drops of water, or in jam, treacle, honey or gruel.

Fever powder for an adult.

1. Take of-

Nitre, powdered . . . 4 grains.
Ipecacuanha . . . . 2 grains.
Antimonial powder . . 3 grains.

Mix. One to be taken every four or six hours.

2. Take of-

Powdered sugar . . . 5 grains.
Tartar emetic .... I grain.
Antimonial powder . . 2 grains.
Calomel ...... 1 1/2 grain.

Mix ; and take one every two, three, or four hours.

Diaphoretic or sweating powder for an adult.

1. Take of-

Dover's powder . . . 10 grains.

To be taken at bedtime.

2. Take of-

Dover's powder . . . 5 grains.
Powdered squills . . . 1 1/2 grain.
Antimonial powder . . 4 grains.
Calomel . . . . . . 2 grains.

Mix; and take at bedtime, following both this and the preceding powder, an hour after, by a hot drink of gruel, or some agreeable beverage.

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