a very strong manner. If this
gentle heating makes matters worse, gentle cooling may be tried. If the
heat does good, it may be continued and increased, but never beyond the
point of comfort. If the cold does good, it also may be continued on
the same principle. What the patient feels relieving and comforting, is
almost sure to be the cure for his trouble, if persisted in. _See_
Changing Treatment.

Rest.--In every person there is a certain amount only of force which is
available for living. Also this force, or _vitality_, is _produced_ at
only a certain definite rate. Where the rate is very low, only perfect
quiet in bed for a time can bring down the expenditure far enough to
enable the vital force gradually to accumulate, and a cure to be
effected. Sitting, in such cases, may be serious overwork.

When rest is ordered, we are often met by the reply that it is
impossible, as work cannot be given up. It is, however, often possible
to get a great deal more than is taken. Every spare moment should be
spent lying down in the most restful position. It is an important
element in nursing to give such a comfortable recumbent position to a
patient as constitutes perfect rest, and the nurse who does so, does a
great deal to cure.

There is with many a prejudice against rest. It is somehow believed
that it is a weakening thing to lie still in bed. "You must get up and
take exercise, and enjoy the fresh air." This is a very good order for
a person who has the strength for bracing exercise and fresh air. But
this is absent in a person truly ill. That person's vital force is low,
and the organs that supply it are feeble in their action. The fresh air
may enter the chest, but the lungs are not in a state to make good use
of it. "Exercise and fresh air" only consume the sufferer. On the
contrary, rest and fresh air allow the weak vital force to recruit. The
sort of exercise which is wanted in such cases is given by others in
massaging or such squeezing the muscles as stimulates the organic
nerves without using vital force in the sufferer. We have repeatedly
succeeded in giving new strength by some weeks in bed, when it could
not have been given otherwise. It is all very well for a young, strong
person, only a very little out of sorts, to take a cold sitz-bath for
ten minutes, and then a walk of a mile or two in mountain or seashore
air. But this treatment would be death to one really ill. Perfect rest
in bed, with an abundant sup