the
water, put in a couple of bungs or corks with feathers stuck in them,
for the baby to play with. Managed thus, I have often seen the
much-dreaded bath become a real delight to the little one, and have
found that if tears were shed at all, it was at being taken out of the
water, not at being placed in it.

In a great variety of conditions, poultices are of use. They are needed
in the case of abscesses which it is wished to bring to a head; they are
sometimes applied over wounds which are in an unhealthy condition, or
from which it is desired to keep up a discharge. They soothe the pain of
stomach-ache from any cause, and are of most essential service when
constantly applied in many forms of chest inflammation. And yet not one
mother or nurse in ten knows how to make a poultice.[5] When applied
over a wound they should not be covered with oiled silk or any
impermeable material, since the edges of the wound and the adjacent skin
are apt thereby to be rendered irritable and to become covered with
little itching pimples. When used to relieve pain in the stomach, or as
a warm application in cases of inflammation of the chest, they should be
covered with some impermeable material, and will then not require to be
changed oftener than every six hours. After poultices have been applied
over the chest or stomach for two or three days the skin is apt to
become tender, and then it is well to substitute for them what may be
termed a dry poultice, which is nothing else than a layer of dry cotton
wool an inch or an inch and a half thick, tacked inside a piece of oiled
silk.

A handy substitute for a poultice may be made of bran stitched in a
flannel bag, heated by pouring boiling water on it, then squeezed as dry
as possible and laid over the painful part. This is especially useful to
relieve the stomach-ache of infants and young children.

Spongio-piline is a useful substitute for a poultice, especially when it
is desirable to employ a soothing or stimulating liniment to the
surface. It retains heat very well when wrung out of hot water, and any
liniment sprinkled on it is brought into contact with the skin much
better than if diffused through a poultice. I may just add that its
edges should be sloped inwards, in order to prevent the moisture from it
oozing out and wetting the child's night-dress.

When I was young, leeches and bleeding were frequently, no doubt too
frequently, employed. We have now, however, gone too much to