FOMENTATION
—is, perhaps, the most generally useful of all external applications in a great variety of cases, and cannot of course be too well known, or too much encouraged. It is a process but little prescribed or practised by FARRIERS or VETERINARIANS; either because its efficacious property is very little known; or the persevering patience required in the act, is too great for constitutional indolence. In all inflammatory tumours and enlargements arising from STRAINS, BLOWS, BRUISES, and various other injuries, the efficacy of hot and persevering FOMENTATION can only be known to those who have repeatedly experienced its salutary effects. In fact, its properties are twofold, in as much as it assists NATURE in whichever is her most predominant effort, either for absorption or suppuration.
Fomentations are prepared by boiling three or four double handsful of the different kinds of aromatic garden herbs in six quarts or two gallons of water, occasionally stirring them for a quarter of an hour; then let the part affected be patiently FOMENTED with sponges or flannels, alternately dipped in the DECOCTION, as hot as it can be consistently used without injury to the hair. If the TUMOUR, or enlargement, does not threaten suppuration, the absorption may be assisted by a gentle persevering friction in hand-rubbing, previous to the application of such REPELLENT as may be thought applicable to the case: on the contrary, should a formation of matter have evidently taken place, the intention of nature cannot be too expeditiously promoted; an EMOLLIENT POULTICE should instantly follow the FOMENTATION, and both be repeated once or twice a-day, according to the magnitude of the emergency.
The herbs chiefly in use for FOMENTATIONS (and from which any three or four may be selected) are Roman and COMMON WORMWOOD, MALLOWS and MARSHMALLOWS, LAVENDER leaves and flowers, Rosemary leaves, CAMMOMILE flowers, Elder flowers, and Bay leaves. These are articles not always to be readily obtained; and as they are in all HUNTING establishments likely to be wanted upon the most sudden emergencies, GENTLEMEN in the country will find the convenience of giving orders for an annual supply to be provided, and properly dried, in the summer, that no disappointment may be experienced in the winter, when their use is more likely to be required. They are kept ready mixed at the BOTANICAL SHOPS in the different markets of the Metropolis, and may always be had in any quantity under the denomination of FOMENTATION HERBS.