d over with fresh
cream or common cerate.

A bread and water poultice, although one of the commonest applications
in use, is rarely well made or properly applied. It thus becomes
injurious rather than useful; adding to the inflammation or irritation
of the part, instead of soothing and allaying it. Nothing, however, is
more simple than the mode of its preparation.

Cut slices of stale bread of sufficient quantity, scald out a bason,
put the bread into it, pour upon it boiling water, cover it over, and
let it stand for ten minutes; next strain the water oft, gently squeeze
the saturated bread in a thin cloth, so that the poultice shall not be
too moist, and then spread it upon a cloth so that it shall be in
thickness half an inch, and of a size large enough to cover the whole
of the inflamed part, and a little more. Apply it just warm enough to
be borne, and cover it well with oiled silk. A poultice thus made, will
act as a local tepid bath to the inflamed part; and the oiled silk
preventing evaporation, it will be found, when taken off, as moist as
the first moment that it was put on.

Sect. VI.--BATHS.

Baths are much resorted to during infancy and childhood, both in
health and in disease. In the former state, they constitute an
important measure of hygeiene (this has been briefly alluded to under
the section "Bathing"), and in the latter, a valuable remedial agent.
Their indiscriminate use, however, might be followed by serious
consequences; it is therefore important to point out a few rules for
their judicious employment.

THE COLD WATER PLUNGE BATH.

It consists of water in its natural degree of heat; its temperature
varying, according to the season of the year or other circumstances,
from 30 degrees to 60 degrees.

The phenomena produced upon a strong and healthy boy plunging into
this bath will be as follows:--He will first experience a sensation of
cold, followed by slight shuddering, and, if the immersion has been
sudden, a peculiar impression in the nervous system, called a shock.
Almost immediately after the shock, the feeling of cold will vanish,
and give place to a sensation of warmth, speedily diffusing itself over
the whole frame. If the boy leaves the bath at this time, or, at all
events, before the warmth of the body goes off, and quickly dresses
himself, a renewal of the reaction which had followed the shock of
immersion will be experienced; he will be in a most delightful glow,