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INFLAMMATION AND v
BRAIN DISEASES. 353
and conveying away unnecessary
food. It is in this
way that every ounce more than a man requires is an
injury. It takes vital force that is needed for other
uses. A clean, abstemious man —in a word, a healthy
man —is not liable to inflammations. The law of inflam
mation is the same as for fever, and its treatment is to
be governed by the same principle.
If an inflammation is external, we may generally cut
it short at, the beginning by the application of extreme
cold,
as ice, or ice-water. If internal, our method is to
derive to the surface, and relieve the inflamed part, by
drawing the blood away, and opening other avenues for
the excretion of morbid matter. By this means, we
produce
internal inflammation by bringing out an eruption
an artificial metastasis, as when we relieve an
on the
skin. This is the use of blisters. The objection to
them is needless violence, and the poisonous means by
which they are, produced.
Sometimes inflammation is reduced by applying cold
to the part affected, and warmth to some other near or
distant part. An ingenious remedy for felon, in its early
stage, is to place the elbow in very warm water, and
apply, at the same time, ice-water to the finger. In
flammation of the brain is also met by putting the feet
and legs in hot water, and applying ice-water to the
head.
The wet-sheet pack, as an equalizer of the circula
tion, is the best of all remedies for inflammation of any
part, external or internal—from a finger or toe, to the
lungs or brain. The half-bath may be, in some cases, a
more rapid and powerful remedy ;
universal application.
but it is not of such