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

In the morning, put a bandage on the part affected, pack the patient in blankets (sweating process) until perspiration appears in the face.

Then put him into the half-bath—water 62° to 65° Fahr.; let him be well rubbed in this from 5 to 25 minutes, or until friction can be applied to all parts alike. Cold water should be occasionally poured over head and shoulders during the operation. This ended, put bandages round the waist and on the afflicted part.

For the second treatment:—About mid-day, rubbed in a packing-sheet; take a sitz-bath for fifteen minutes—first time tepid 64°, afterwards cold; then put the offending member into cold water for ten or fifteen minutes, and renew bandages.

In the afternoon, at 5 o’clock, repeat mid-day treatment. During the day, drink ten to fourteen tumblers of water.

The above treatment will generally put an end to a slight attack of gout; but to eradicate it from the system, the cure must be followed up. To effect this, for the sweating process on the second day, substitute the packing-sheet until warm, which generally requires the patient to lie in it from thirty minutes to an hour.

Where a bath cannot be obtained, the rubbing sheet is used instead; this should be very little wrung out, and if one does not cool the body, a second or a third should be applied.

The douche is often applied in gout; but as that cannot be the case in ordinary practice, the practitioner must use his discretion in prescribing it.

It is good treatment to use the sweating process in the morning, and the packing-sheet in the afternoon.

The bandages must be worn day and night, and changed often.

Cases.—A patient, fifty years of age, with rheumatic gout, bad digestion, nervousness, fingers blue and swollen, slight pain in the knee, much debilitated, was ordered:—In the morning, five rubbing sheets, two or three minutes each, allowing a short interim between each. At noon, the same. At five o’clock, the same. Ten tumblers of water daily. Bandages to parts affected, and round the loins always. On the patient experiencing great pain under the knees, the morning treatment was changed to lying in packing-sheets until well warmed, followed by the tepid bath. Patient soon improved in health.