when they see the raw surface beneath. It is, however, a grievous
mistake to allow them to collect; they are in themselves a source of
irritation, and they entirely prevent any application reaching the skin
beneath. They must always be removed, and never be allowed to form
again. They can be removed either by the employment of a poultice, half
of bread, half of linseed meal, or by the application over-night of a
handkerchief soaked in sweet oil, and covered over with a piece of oiled
silk, which softens the crusts effectually, and allows of their easy
removal by abundant washing with weak soap and water.

The best applications afterwards vary so much that it is impossible to
lay down any positive rule. Sometimes the Carron oil, as it is termed: a
liniment compound of equal parts of linseed oil and lime-water--a
popular and most useful application in burns--gives most ease to the
irritated skin; sometimes the mere exclusion of the air by means of the
india-rubber cap; sometimes the abundant use of powder. In every case,
at least once in every twenty-four hours the whole surface must be
washed quite clean with barley water or thin gruel; and when the
discharge lessens or ceases, as it will do in the course of time, then,
but not till then, various ointments may be of service.

When the chronic stage arrives, in which the skin becomes dry and scaly,
then is the time for tonics, for iron, sometimes for cod-liver oil, and
for arsenic; of which latter remedy, however, the results are uncertain;
while in the acute stage, its influence is simply mischievous. Nothing
is more difficult, nor calls for more skill, or larger medical
experience, than the proper management of the various forms of chronic
eczema.

The question is sometimes asked whether it is safe to cure, or, as
people call it, to dry up these eruptions in teething children. There
can be no doubt but that it is very desirable to prevent their
occurrence as far as may be by the use of the precautionary measures
which I have explained. But when they have existed for some time, either
attended with profuse discharge, or causing great irritation by their
extent, there is no doubt but that care must be exercised in attempts at
their cure, that soothing measures such as I have advocated should be
chiefly employed, and that the sudden drying up of the discharge by a
too abundant use of dusting powders must be avoided. If, too, the
diminution of the rash were followed by a