reatment in a disease of so varied and indefinite a
character, due to such a multitude of causes, obviously nothing can be
said except in the broadest and sketchiest of outline. The prevailing
tendency is, for the acute form, rest in bed, the first and most
important, also the second, the third, and the last element in the
treatment. This will do more to diminish the severity of the attack and
prevent the occurrence of heart and other complications than any other
single procedure.

After this has been secured, the usual plan is to assist nature in the
elimination of the toxins by alkalies, alkaline mineral waters, and
other laxatives; to relieve the pain, promote the comfort, and improve
the rest of the patient by a variety of harmless nerve-deadeners or
pain-relievers, chief among which are the salicylates, aspirin, and the
milder coal-tar products. By a judicious use of these in competent hands
the pain and distress of the disease can be very greatly relieved, but
it has not been found that its duration is much shortened thereby, or
even that the danger of heart and other complication is greatly
lessened. The agony of the inflamed joints may be much diminished by
swathing in cotton-wool and flannel bandages, or in cloths wrung out of
hot alkalies covered with oiled silk, or by light bandages kept
saturated with some evaporating lotion containing alcohol. As soon as
the fever has subsided, then hot baths and gentle massage of the
affected joints give great relief and hasten the cure. But, when all is
said and done, the most important curative element, as has already been
intimated, is six weeks in bed.

In the chronic form the same remedies to relieve the pain are sometimes
useful, but very much less effective, and often of little or no value.
Dry heat, moist heat, gentle massage, and prolonged baking in special
metal ovens, will often give much relief. Liniments of all sorts, from
spavin cures to skunk oil, are chiefly of value in proportion to the
amount of friction and massage administered when they are rubbed in.

In short, there is no disease under heaven in which so much depends upon
a careful study of each individual case and adaptation of treatment to
it personally, according to its cause and the patient in whom it occurs.
Rheumatism, unfortunately, does tend to "run in families." Apparently
some peculiar susceptibility of the nervous system to influences which
would be comparatively harmless to normal nerves