Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/30

6] leeches on the temples, or even opening the jugular vein, will sometimes become necessary, especially in plethoric and bilious females. Beside these remedies, a blister applied to the neck behind the ears, or to the part most sensibly affected, is often of great service; though, in urgent cases, this application should cover the whole head. In full and robust habits, issues are eminently useful, while the bowels should be regularly opened by the mildest purgatives. Sometimes, however, the simple external application of a few drops of cajeput, juniper, or any other essential oil, operates like a charm, in removing either the tooth-ach, or violent pains of the head. In all the complaints of pregnant women, arising from too prevailing an acidity, such as heart-burn, vomiting, cough upon taking food, and that feverish, restless state, so common in the latter period of pregnancy, Dr. directs two or three spoonfuls of the following mixture to be taken, either occasionally, or, when the symptoms are continual, after every meal: viz. one drachm of calcined magnesia, five ounces and a half of pure water, three drachms of the spirit of cinnamon, and one drachm of the water of pure ammonia. Magnesia has long been a celebrated remedy for these complaints; but the most efficacious ingredient in the prescription, is the pure ammonia, as the effect will be nearly the same with the omission of the magnesia, which, without the ammonia, is of inferior efficacy. This judicious physician farther remarks, that the vomiting, which occurs in early pregnancy, seldom arises from, or is connected with, acidity; and that the remedy before specified is, in that case, not adapted to the purpose. When such vomiting is moderate, and confined to the early part of the day, it appears to be useful; but if it incessantly continue for many days together, accompanied with great loss of strength, constant thirst, and an utter inability of retaining any thing on the stomach, in this state Dr. asserts, that the most effectual remedy is the application of leeches to the pit of the stomach; and a constant attention to diet, that the patient may swallow nothing which has a tendency to irritate or stimulate the organs of digestion. He has also found it of the greatest service to allow no other drink than ass's milk, and that by single spoonfuls only. The use of leeches, applied to the pit of the stomach, for the relief of vomiting, is by no means confined to the state of pregnancy; but when this symptom occurs in fevers, or is produced in consequence of taking any acrid or indigestible substance, he has repeatedly experienced that their application in those cases is of equal utility.  ABRAUM, in natural history, is a term given by some writers to a species of red clay found in the Isle of Wight, and used by our artizans to impart a fine red coluur to new mahogany wood.  ABRIDGEMENT, is the art of compressing any species of literary composition, so as to convey its full and complete tenor in a smaller compass than the original.

The talent of abridging the labours of others, and of communicating much information in few words, is an art not only eminently useful in itself, but productive of great advantages. It enables the reader to take a concise and comprehensive view of those subjects, which, in a more diffuse form, his leisure