Every Man His Own Doctor / The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle

by R. T. Claridge

Frequent rubbing-sheets; packing-sheets, and sitz-bath, cut short the premonitory stage of the disease. In the event of increase of pain and fever, tepid bath 62 to 64 deg. should be used, and patient kept in it until the axillæ are cold. Packing-sheet, after the lapse of twenty-four, thirty-six, or forty-eight hours, when all inflammatory symptoms have ceased, may be had recourse to. Should these symptoms return, the tepid bath must be repeated, and its duration regulated by circumstances.

LXI.—Chilblains.

Put the part affected in tepid water three times a day for twenty minutes; if the fingers are attacked, apply a bandage from the wrist to the elbow; if the toes, from the ankle to the knee, and wear it night and day.

LXII.—Cold Feet.

When cold, to be well rubbed with wet hands, but never put into a bath. To cure cold feet, rubbing-sheet to the whole body, and friction to the feet two or three times a day; after which, walk about room, or passage, or cold wet stones, for ten or fifteen minutes, or until heat has returned. Persons suffering from cold feet, on going to bed at night may use the bandage as follows: first bring heat to the feet by exercise or friction; then put a bandage into cold water, wring it out well, envelope the feet in it, and over that place a thick dry bandage.

LXIII.—Cold Hands And Whitlow.

Rub the hands with snow or cold water and let them dry of themselves; when they are wounded, keep the snow or water away from them. To draw heat or bad matter from the hands, bandage from the wrist to elbow and use elbow-bath, fifteen minutes each time. In ordinary cases of whitlow, rub the finger, hand and wrist often with wet hand, and bandage the finger at night. If obstinate, resort to the same treatment as for cold hands.

LXIV.—Bunnion and Enlarged Glands of Foot and Instep.

A lady aged 45 was ordered—morning, packing-sheet twenty minutes and tepid bath 62°; noon, sitz-bath fifteen minutes; afternoon, rubbing-sheet. Bandage to feet and legs up to the knees at night, and from ankles to knees only by day If the feet are wounded by tight boots, take foot-baths twice a-day and wear a bandage on the feet at night.