carried along with the head of the child at birth, and covers it like a veil. The caul is frequently preserved. Much superstition used to be attached both to the circumstance and to the object itself. CAULIFLOWER, a vegetable of the cabbage tribe, agrees better than most other vegetables, with those of weak digestion. The addition of melted butter is injurious. CAUSTICS are substances which destroy organised tissues by combining with their constituent elements. The mineral acids, strong acetic acid, potassa, lime, nitrate of silver, refined sugar, belong to the class, and may be referred to under their respective heads. CAUTERY is iron applied at a red or white heat to the animal body. It is a powerful means of counter-irritation. CAYENNE.-See Capsicum. CELLULAR MEMBRANE or TISSUE, or AREOLAR TISSUE, is the reticular membraneous web, which connects the various portions of the body, and fills up the interstices. It is made up of numberless little fibres and bands crossing each other in every direction, and enclosing small spaces, which freely communicate throughout the body. The most familiar exemplification of cellular tissue, and of its free inter-communication, is seen in the blown-up veal of the butcher. In the living body, the areolar tissue contains a thin water or serous fluid, which, when it accumulates in undue quantity, constitutes one form of dropsy, finding its way by permeation through the cellular meshes to the most dependent part of the body. *CERATE.—An ointment, of which wax forms a component. The hard wax, and fuid oil or lard, when combined, forming a compound of convenient consistence. Simple cerate is formed by melting together equal parts of white wax and olivecil, and stirring during cooling. Calamine, or Turner's Cerate. See Cala mine. Lead cerate.-Acetate of lead five drachms, white wax eight ounces, olive-oil twenty ounces. Dissolve the wax by heat in eighteen ounces of the oil, rub up the acetate of lead finely with the remaining two ounces, add this gradually to the larger quantity, and stir during cooling. Resin cerate: Take of resin five ounces, lard eight ounces, bee's-wax two ounces, melt them together with a gentle heat, and then stir the mixture briskly while it cools. Scap cerate is sometimes useful: it is better procured ready prepared. CEREBRUM.—The brain.-See Brain. CEREBELLUM.-The lesser brain. See Brain. CERUMEN is the waxy matter of the ear, of which the chief purpose is, probably, the repulsion-by its bitterness and other qualities-of insects which might enter or harbour in the passage. It sometimes accumulates to so great an extent, especially in the aged, and in the young, particularly after acute diseases, as to cause deafness, more or less complete, which is generally accompanied with noises and other uneasy sensations in the affected organ. The accumulated wax may, possibly, be detected, by examining the ear-passage with the aid of a candle. In order to remove the hardened mass, a small portion of warm olive or almond-oil must be dropped into the ear for two or three nights in succession, for the purpose of softening and loosening the wax; after that has been done, the passage must be thoroughly syringed out with warm water, by means of a twoounce syringe, till the wax is detached and washed out. Some persons become faint and giddy on having the ears syringed; in such cases the operation is best undergone in the horizontal posture. Refer to-Ear-Syringe. +CHALK.. Carbonate of lime occurs abundantly in various parts of the world; it is used in medicine as an absorbent and antacid. For medicinal purposes it requires to be levigated, by which process the finer particles are separated: when dried, the preparation constitutes the "prepared chalk of the shops. As a general antacid, chalk is scarcely to be recommended, but in cases of diarrhoea, especially in children, where much acidity exists, it is highly usefu For the latter purpose, from twelve to eighteen grains of chalk rubbed up in an ounce and a-half of dill water, form a mixture of which a tea-spoonful may be given to an infant six weeks old, every few hours if requisite. In the case of adults, the ordinary chalk mixture is an excellent preparation; it may be made with prepared chalk two drachms, powder of gum acacia two drachms, cinnamon water, or water simply, eight ounces; a drachm and a-half of sugar may be added, but is quite as well omitted; better, if the climate is a warm one, as it causes fermentation. To the above mixture, rhubarb, laudanum, &c., may be added if requisite. The dose, two or three table-spoonfuls, repeated more or less frequently, according to the amount of diarrhoea. The compound chalk powder-dose thirty to sixty grains-and the same powder with opium--dose five to twenty grains-are both useful and Cerates are omitted from the British Pharmacopoeia, and are now included under Ungents or Ointments. Turner's Cerate is omitted altogether. +CHALK-The Compound Chalk Powder has been exchanged in the British Pharmacopoeia for the Aromatic Chalk Powder; and the Aromatic Chalk Powder is combined with Opium in the preparation of one grain of the latter to forty grains of the former. The average dose for an adult being twenty to thirty grains. easily carried preparations, which ought to form part of the domestic medicine chest of the emigrant, or, indeed, wherever the usual sources for procuring efficient medicines are far distant. The powders ought to be procured ready prepared. Forty grains of that compounded with opium, contain one grain of the drug. Chalk forms an ingredient in the aromatic confection. The practice of sprinkling chalk powder upon sores, for the purpose of absorbing discharges, &c., is not to be recommended. CHALK-STONE-is the concretion deposited around and in the joints of those who suffer from chronic gout. It consists of the lithic acid and soda, which form a comparatively insoluble salt. The liability to the formation of chalk-stone, is a reason why those who are subject to gout should, when an antacid is required, make use of potassa, which, in union with lithic acid, forms a much more soluble salt than soda does. Refer to-Gout-Urates Acid- Urine. CHALYBEATES-are medicines containing iron. The term is well known in connection with mineral waters. The most generally used chalybeate springs in this country are those of Tunbridge-wells, Cheltenham, and Scarborough; Leamington and Harrogate also possess chalybeate waters, and there are many others, including Hartfell, and Peterhead, in Scotland, scattered throughout the island. In chalybeate waters the iron is generally in combination with carbonic acid, the taste of the water is inky, and if it be one of those-and they are the most general-in which the metal is in combination with carbonic acid, when the water has stood exposed to the air for some time, it lets fall a yellowish sediment. Chalybeate waters are, by virtue of the iron they contain, powerful tonics, and well adapted as curative agents in diseases of debility generally; but they are not to be lightly and unthinkingly used, or without professional sanction. Many persons do themselves serious injury by unadvisedly drinking mineral waters, under the idea that if they do no good, they cannot do much harm. To persons of full habit, and with any tendency to head affection, even a short course of chalybeate water might be most seriously dangerous. Refer to- Iron. tices, for which they are no better than the simple water or bran; but their infusion taken internally is an aromatic bitter of undoubted tonic properties, and without nauseousness. In simple debility of the stomach and loss of appetite, chamomile tea, if not used too frequently, and for too long time at once, is a safe and good remedy. Half-anounce of chamomile flowers may be infused like common tea, in rather less than a pint of boiling-water, or if time be given, in cold water, which makes an equally efficacious and pleasanter dose. Chamomile tea drank warm is often employed as a gentle emetic by itself, or to aid the action of other medicines of the class; alone it is very uncertain, unless made very strong. From five to ten drops of the essential oil of chamomile, dropped on sugar, is a useful, and not unpleasant carminative. CHAMPAGNE,-the well-known wine, contains about 12 per cent. of alcohol, a much less proportional quantity than the strong dry wines, such as port, sherry, Madeira, &c. When effervescing, however, it exerts a powerful but transient intoxicating effect. Champagne is often accused of causing gout, indigestion, &c., but perhaps these are more likely to be the results of the other luxuries which accompany a champagne dinner, than of the wine itself. CHANCRES-are small ulcers, the result of inoculation with the venereal poison. They commence in the form of small pustules, which, after breaking, degenerate into yellowish grey-looking sores, around which the skin feels firm or hard. Thorough destruction of the chancre in the first instance, by means of nitrate of silver, lunar caustic, is the only safe measure. When the disease has advanced beyond the incipient stage, or indeed in any stage, it cannot be a subject for domestic treatment, and ought more especially, on account of the lamentable results which may ensue should the constitution become affected, to be without delay entrusted to proper medical care. CHAPPED HANDS-so troublesome to many in frosty weather and during cold dry east winds, may partly be avoided by care in thoroughly drying the skin after washing. The following lotion will be found useful: take of borax two scruples, glyce rine half-an-ounce, water seven and a-half ounces. This may be used twice-a-day.t CHARCOAL.-SEE CARBON. CHARPIE-the loose fibres from scraped linen, used to absorb the discharge from sores. It is more used in France than in this country. CHAMOMILE-the "Anthemis Nobilis" of botanists, is too well known to require description. The flowers, either fresh or dried, are deservedly classed amid the most useful, safe, and generally employed domestic remedies. They are often, it is true, CHEESE is the curd or caseine of milk wasted, in making fomentations and poul-mixed with a proportion of butter, pressed. CHAMPAGNE.-Within the last ten years this wine has come into much more general use, owing to the reduction in price. In diseases of exhaustion, more especially in the extreme debility of fever, when the stomach is irritable, few medicines are equal to Champagne frequently given, in quantities of from half to a whole wine-glassful. In many cases of even temporary nervous exhaustion it is a valuable restorative. +CHAPPED HANDS-Take of Lead Solution-Oxide of Zinc-Glycerine-each one drachin-Pure Lard two ounces-Rub well together-Use to the hands every night. See also Appendix. salted, and dried. A general and nutri-, tious article of diet, it is not one suited to weak stomachs. A meal of bread and cheese alone requires a thoroughly strong digestion to dispose of it comfortably. Many, however, who cannot eat cheese in this way, may take it in small quantity with impunity, and when old almost with advantage, at the close of a moderate meal. Much of the indigestibility of cheese arises undoubtedly from its toughness, and the cohesion of its particles, this diminishes as it verges towards decay; but is much increased by toasting, which renders the article decidedly unwholesome. Cheese is said to assist the digestion of other articles of diet; and there is an old rhyme : "Cheese is a peevish elf, Digests everything but itself." Probably, the power put forth by the stomach for the solution of the cheese acts more readily upon the less tenacious substances submitted to it at the same time. The habitual use of old cheese in any quantity is injurious, and may occasion cutaneous eruptions. In Germany, a peculiar kind of decay in cheese has occasioned symptoms of irritant poisoning. The caseine, or curd of milk, which forms the basis of cheese, very closely resembles albumen in composition; its nutritive power may be known from the fact, "that from caseine alone the chief constituent of the young animal's blood, as well as its muscular fibres, membranes, &c., are formed in the first stage of its life." The contrast afforded by tough indigestible cheese to the milk curd adapted for easy solution in the stomachs of the young, is a good example of the manner in which an article of diet, nutritive and wholesome, may be modified as regards its digestibility, by preparation. Caseine is found in the vegetable kingdom, chiefly in seeds.* Refer to-Milk. *CHELTENHAM.-The climate of Cheltenham is considered particularly adapted for health, there being neither great extremes of heat, nor of cold. To those, however, with whom a dry and bracing atmosphere agrees, its climate is less favourable than some other localities. "The mineral springs of Cheltenham are exclusively employed for internal administration. They, for the most part, resemble each other as to the nature of their component parts, yet present considerable differences in the relative proportions of their ingredients. They are rich in muriate and sulphate of soda. Several of them contain a small portion of iron, and iodine has been lately detected in them. They are but slightly gaseous, and though two or three of them have, when first drawn, a slight odour of sulphurated hydrogen, it soon passes off, and is probably dependent upon the springs passing through a layer of mud, or matter in a state of decomposition. It must not, therefore, be supposed that the so-called sulphuretted wells are analogous in their action with the class of sulphurous springs. **Besides its saline springs, Cheltenhamı possesses two chalybeate ones, which, like others of the same class, have a disagreeable inky taste, and are somewhat darkcoloured. From their not containing much carbonic acid, they do not sparkle, and are soon decomposed on exposure to the atmosphere. "There are many diseases in which the Cheltenham springs may be used with advantage. Persons who have lived in India and other tropical climates, who have been accustomed to take large doses of mercury, will generally derive benefit, less from the aperient than the tonic properties of the waters. For gouty patients, also of a plethoric or irritable habit, they are advisable. And in cases of amenorrhea and chlorosis they do good service, where with it a faulty condition of the digestive organs exists." For the substance of the above article, and of others similar to it, the author is indebted to the work of Mr. Edwin Lee on the "Watering Places and Mineral Springs of England," and those who desire further information cannot do better than have recourse to the publication itself. CHERRY.-The fruit of the Prunus cerasus. Like other stone-fruits it is apt to disagree. CHESNUT-is the fruit of the Castaneo vulgaris; it is nutritious, contains much starch, and no oil, like many others of the nut tribe. It is certainly indigestible from its firm and coherent substance, but is rendered much more unwholesome by being converted into flour, in which state it is largely used on the continent. Roasted chesnuts are more wholesome than raw, but are not fit for weak stomachs. CHEST,- or, in medical language, the thorax, is the important cavity situated between the neck and the abdomen-sec fig. A-which contains the heart and large blood vessels and the lungs. It is separated from the abdomen by the diaphragm, it is bounded by the breast-bone anteriorly. laterally by the ribs, and is supported posteriorly by the spine-fig. B. It is singular how much ignorance there is among the uneducated regarding the situation of what is called the chest: generally it is referred to the pit of the stomach; and what is called • CHEESE —It should be known that in this country symptoms of poisoning have resulted from eating decayed cheese, and the case of the "Burley" kiflemen. twenty of whom suffered alarmingly from such a cause, may be remembered. The chief symptoms are severe pains in the bowels, and general collapse. The treatment for colic would be applicable here-See Colic. ↑ CHELTENHAM.-See Appendix-Health Resorts. "a pain in the chest," is in many instances, a pain in the former situation. In ordering applications, leeches, blisters, and such like to the chest among the poor, it is absolutely requisite to indicate with the finger the exact spot on which they are to be placed, otherwise the chances are, that if simply the chest is named, the pit of the stomach will be understood; a serious mistake in many of the acute affections of the chest, particularly in children. The form of the chest itself is, or ought to be, that of a truncated cone, broad below, narrow above-fig. B. It is true it appears in the investigation of disease, and should never be omitted or objected to. For the purpose of facilitating description, the cavity is mapped by vertical and horizontal lines, in a similar manner to the abdomen. Refer to Abdomen — Heart — LungsRespiration. CHEST-Water in.-See Dropsy. CHICKEN POX is a mild eruptive disease which spreads by infection, and chiefly attacks children, occurring once during life. It is preceded in most, but not in all cases, by slight feverishness, for one or two days. The eruption first appears in the form of conical pimples with a white head, on the breast, shoulders and neck, more sparingly on the face, and on the body generally. On the second day, the vesicles appear like little globular blisters, but with very slight surrounding inflammation; on the third and fourth days, the fluid they contain becomes opaque or whey-like; they now either break or shrivel up, forming thin puckered crusts, which fall off piecemeal in one or two days more, seven or eight days being the whole time occupied by the course of the disorder. Little or no treatment is required beyond a gentle aperient repeated once or twice, and care taken that the child does not irritate by scratching. Chicken pox might be mistaken for modified small pox by the inexperienced; it is distinguished by the absence or extreme mildness of premonitory fever, and by the rapid development, course, and different form of the vesicles, particularly in the absence of the central depression, which characterises the true small pox vesicle. CHICORY.-The Cicorium intybus, the root of which, when roasted and ground, forms the well-known adulteration of coffee. Some persons consider the admixture of chicory with coffee an improvement, and at all events harmless, but the recent investigations of the "Lancet Sanitary Commission," tend to show that infusion of chicory, alone especially, and also when mixed with coffee in the proportion of twenty-five per cent., produced sense of weight at the stomach, languor, and head-ache; it has, by an eminent continental authority, been assigned as one of the exciting causes of amaurosis. Infusion of chicory occasionally acts as an aperient, at other times as a diuretic. In consequence of chicory not containing essential oil, it has not, when roasted, the fragrance of coffee, its infusion has a "sweetish and mawkish taste, and is dark coloured, thick and glutinous." But although chicory is used as an adulteration, the recent Lancet investigations go to prove that it is itself extensively adulterated with various substances. These are, 66 carrot, parsnip, mangel-wurzel, beans, lupin seeds, wheat, rye, dog biscuit, burnt sugar, red earth, horse chesnut, acorns, oak bark, tan, mahogany saw-dust, baked horse's and bullock's liver, Hamburg powder," which consists of peas roasted and ground, and coloured with the next article, "Venetian red," also an adulteration. Perhaps after such disclosures, few persons will prefer chicory in their coffee; and, at all events, the moral fraud of vending for the pure article, that which is mixed, ought not to be suffered. When hot water has been allowed to stand for some time on coffee containing chicory powder, the grains of the latter lose their colour, and resemble small brown sago, whilst those of the coffee become rather darker than before. CHILD-BED.-The term may be applied either to the actual labour itself, or to the confinement generally, from the first commencement of the symptoms to the completion of convalescence. It is in the latter sense it will be considered in this article. The process of child-birth consists of a series of the most beautiful adaptations to the mechanism and structural and vital endowments of the human frame, with every providential provision for the safety both of the mother and infant, during the trying but important event. When the full period of pregnancy is completed, the process which is to free the womb of its contents, commences with the preparatory relaxation of the various parts connected with the passage of the child into the world; shortly, the long-closed orifice, or "mouth" of the organ begins to open or dilate, allowing, in the first place, the protrusion of the membraneous bag which contains the fluid, or waters, in which the infant floats, and which protrusion forms a soft wedge, dilating the maternal structures preparatory to the passage of the hard head of the infant, which follows as propelled by the expulsive efforts of the womb. Sooner or later, however, this membraneous bag gives way under the pressure, the waters are discharged with a gush, and the head itself becomes, in great measure, the dilating agent. Although not in the position at the commencement of labour, at its conclusion, the head of the infant should pass from the mother with the face looking directly backwards, and in the great majority of cases it does so, attaining the position by a series of turns which cannot be profitably explained to the unprofessional. In some cases, however, the position of the head is reversed, so that it |