Carry the poultice on a hot plate, or rolled in
a newspaper or hot towel. Test it carefully with the back of the hand, apply it to the skin gradually, cover it with cotton batting, oiled muslin, or several thicknesses of flannel, and keep it in place with a bandage or towel. Remove it as soon as it has become cold, and unless the skin is much reddened apply a fresh poultice. If the skin is much reddened, anoint it with vaseline or sweet oil, wrap it warmly, and apply the next poultice as soon as the appearance of the skin is normal.
Stupes or hot fomentations are cloths, preferably of flannel or flannelette, wrung out of boiling water and applied to the skin. Each stupe should be three or four times as large as the area to be covered. Two are needed, so that one may be prepared before removing the other. To prevent escape of heat and moisture the stupe should be covered after it has been applied, first with a piece of rubber cloth or oiled silk or muslin, and next with several thicknesses of flannel, or cotton batting made into a pad. The whole should be kept in place with a bandage or towel used as a binder. The doctor will tell how often the stupes are to be applied, but if the skin becomes irritated they must be stopped until its appearance is again normal.
Fig. 27.—Wringing Stupe. (From "Elementary Nursing Procedures," California State Board of Health.)
Great care must be taken in applying fomentations. They do little good unless very hot, but if applied too hot the patient is likely to be scalded. They must be wrung as dry as possible;
but it is difficult to wring them without scalding the hands unless stupe wringers are used. Stupe wringers are heavy pieces of cloth, like roller towels or pieces of ticking, long enough to extend over opposite sides of the basin in which the stupe is to be boiled, and wide enough to hold the stupe easily. The wringer should be placed in the basin with the stupe arranged upon it. Boiling water should then be added, or the water, stupe, and wringer may be boiled together in the basin. After the stupe is ready, the wringer with the stupe upon it should be removed from the water by grasping the dry ends of the wringer. Then the ends should be twisted in opposite directions until the stupe inside is as dry as possible. Wringing is made easier if the wringer has wide hems into which sticks such as pieces of broom handles are inserted. By twisting the sticks in opposite directions the stupe may be wrung out easily.