Papers on Health

by John Kirk

Take, then, a case in which the ankle bone has first become painful, perhaps without any perceptible cause, or it may be as the result of an injury to the part. It then swells and becomes inflamed. At this stage two or three fomentations (see) well applied may very likely cure it entirely. But if neglected, or leeched, blistered, and the skin spoiled with iodine, what is called disease of the bone may set in, accompanied with discharge of matter at one or more places on the ankle. This discharge, where it is evidently lodging in the limb, may be assisted to escape by careful lancing by a good surgeon. For such a case, fomentation of as much of the limb as possible is the treatment. Let a bath be procured, in which the limb may be immersed in hot water as deeply as possible, even up to the very thigh. Let the water at first be comfortably warm. Increase its temperature gradually until as hot as can be borne without pain. Keep the limb in this bath for an hour, or for such shorter period as the patient may be able to bear it. Gently dry, and rub all over with warm olive oil. Wipe this gently off, and cover the limb with clothing. Then syringe any sores with weak acid (see Acetic Acid; Wounds), and dress with bandage (see Ankle, Twisted). Do this twice each day, and persevere.

If it cannot well be bathed, let it be fomented by a large piece of flannel soaked with boiling water, and placed round the diseased part. We have seen a wasting bone healed entirely in a few weeks by this means. We have seen a man with the bones of both his legs splintering off and coming through the skin perfectly healed in a few months. It stands to reason that it should be so. The bathing in his case, like the fomenting in others, were so effectually done that the bones themselves were heated, and strong healing action set in at once. We saw lately a piece of dead bone above four inches long come out of a young man's arm as the result of nothing else but fomentation. The arm was soon as whole and as useful as could be desired, though it had been to all appearance only fit to be taken off at the elbow. The steady supply of moist heat does wonders in this way.

We have seen some most remarkable specimens of what was erroneously thought sufficient fomentation. One was a case of diseased thigh-bone. A bit of old flannel, about a quarter of a yard square, had been wrung out of water slightly tepid and laid on the skin, covered by a little cloth scarcely equal in size. The application would not have conveyed activity to the skin on which it was laid, though it required to convey it to the heart of a large mass of bone. The helpless complaint of the operator was that it did no good. How in the world could it do good? Not less than six or seven or even eight yards of a blanket are required. That is to be folded and rolled up so that a good quantity of boiling water may be poured first into one end of it and then into the other. It has to be squeezed and kneaded till the heated water and steam are fairly soaking the inside of the blanket. When this is opened up, it is far too hot to put to the skin, but a double flannel or strong towel may be put on first, so that the heat shall go gradually through to the body, and by-and-by into the bone. This may be done at least once a day—if agreeable, it may be done twice. But it must be so well done that the heat shall effect the bone, or you cannot look for any result of importance.

If under the bathing the skin becomes irritated, as it will often do, cover it with cloths soaked in weak vinegar till the bathing is over. If the skin suffers from the fomentation, do the same thing, and if this does not cure, dress it, before putting on the fomentation flannels, with soap (see) lather as if for shaving, spread like butter on a cloth, and made to shelter the skin from irritation till the fomenting is done. This is of great importance in many cases; the skin is often so sensitive that it cannot well be bathed without being protected.

Preparing Blanket for Fomentation.

In the case of hip-joint disease, the armchair fomentation (see) is the best form of fomenting. For other parts, common sense will guide how to produce an extensive and thorough heating of the diseased part and its neighbourhood by some similar means (see Bathing the Feet; Pains, etc.). It is only heating the failed tissues, only keeping on such heating, and all the elements of perfect cure are supplied. Even limbs which have shrunk and become shorter, grow out to their natural size under this patient heating.

Get "steel drops" and all such-like sent down the sewer. The rats may have them if they are disposed. Give wheaten or oatmeal porridge, bread or Saltcoats biscuits, with good buttermilk, and the poor creature, half dead with poisonous "drops," begins ere long to have red on his lips and on his cheeks, some fresh vigour in his muscles, and healthy bone in the course of formation, where bone was only wasting before. How is this explained? On the simple principle that the bodily system can turn wheaten meal into all the elements wanted for good bodily health. Beef tea, soups, "fine things" of all descriptions, never on earth gave human beings solid strength, but in myriads of cases they have been successfully employed to take it away. Above all, they fail to give healthy bone.

Get the patient to take wheaten or oaten meal porridge twice a day at least. We are not so stern as some in forbidding all else, though in this we may fall short; but by all means let eating and drinking be considered in the light of what we have been writing (see Food in Health).

Good air is important in this, as in all cases of ill-health.