7.  Carbolic acid 1 dram
      Calamin prep 2 drams
      Zinc oxide 4 drams
      Glycerin 6 drams
      Lime water 1 ounce
      Rose water enough to make 8 ounces

Mix.  Keep in contact with the itching area by means of gauze or cotton while the itching is intense.

8.  For injections into the rectum for rawness of the mucous membrane, the following is well recommended.  Use three drams of this at one time.

Fluid extract Witch Hazel          2 ounces
Fluid extract Ergot                2 drams
Fluid extract Golden Seal          2 drams
Compound tincture Benzoin          2 drams
Carbolized Olive or Linseed Oil    1 ounce
Carbolic acid                      5 per cent

Mix and shake well before using.

9.  For the same purpose:—­
      Ichthyol 1 dram
      Olive oil 1 ounce

Mix and apply in the rectum on a piece of cotton.

[146 Mothers’ remedies]

Piles. (Hemorrhoids).—­Hemorrhoid is derived from two Greek words, meaning blood and flowing with blood.  “Pile” is from a Greek word meaning a ball or globe.  Hemorrhoids, or piles, are varicose tumors involving the veins, capillaries of the mucous membranes and tissue directly underneath the mucous membrane of the lower rectum, characterized by a tendency to bleed and protrude.  They were known in the time of Moses.

Varieties.—­There are the external (covered by the skin) and the internal (covered by mucous membrane).

Causes.—­Heredity.  More frequent in males.  Women sometimes suffer from them during pregnancy.  Usually occurs between the ages of twenty-five and fifty.  Sedentary life, irregular habits, high-grade wines and liquors, hot and highly seasoned and stimulating foods.  Heavy lifting.  Those who must remain on their feet long or sit on hard unventilated seats for several hours at a time.  Railway employees, because they take their meals any time and cannot go to stool when Nature calls, causing constipation.  Purgatives and enemata used often and for a long time.  Constipation is perhaps the most frequent cause:  when a movement of the bowels is put off for a considerable time the feces accumulate and become hard and lumpy and difficult to expel.  If this hard mass is retained in the rectum, it presses upon the blood vessels interfering with their circulation and by bruising the vessels may induce an inflammation of the veins when the hardened feces are expelled; straining is intense, the mass closes the vessels above by pressure and forces the blood downward into the veins, producing dilatation when the force is sufficient.  One or more of the small veins near the anus may rupture and cause a bloody (vascular) tumor beneath the mucous membrane or skin.