specially for eruptive
diseases. Nor did the physicians before Priessnitz know anything about
the use of the _sitz-bath_ for affections of the brain in torpid
reaction, which in such cases, is the only anchor of safety. In short,
water-treatment was, like other methods, an excellent thing for certain
symptoms, but not generally and safely applicable in every case.

To appreciate the effects of the wet-sheet pack, one must have seen it
used for inflammatory fever, when it acts like a charm, frequently
removing all the feverish symptoms, and their cause, in a few hours.

45. TECHNICALITIES OF THE PACK AND BATH.

Let me give you its technicalities, and the rationale of its action:

A linen sheet, (linen is a better conductor than cotton,) large enough
to wrap the whole person of the patient in it (not too large, however;
if there is no sheet of proper size, it should be doubled at the upper
end) is dipped in water of a temperature answering to the degree of heat
and fever, say between fifty and seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and more
or less tightly wrung out. The higher the temperature of the body, and
the quicker and fuller the pulse, the lower the temperature of the
water, and the wetter the sheet. This wet sheet is spread upon a blanket
previously placed on the mattress of the bed on which the packing is to
take place. The patient, wholly undressed, is laid upon it, stretched
out in all his length, and his arms close to his thighs, and quickly
wrapped up in the sheet, head and all, with the exception of the face;
the blanket is thrown over the sheet, first on the packer's side, folded
down about the head and shoulders, so as to make it stick tight to all
parts of the body, especially the neck and feet, tucked under the
shoulders, side of the trunk, leg and foot; then the opposite side of
the blanket is folded and tucked under in the same manner, till the
blanket and sheet cover the whole body _smoothly_ and _tightly_. Then
comes a feather-bed, or a comforter doubled up, and packed on and around
the patient, so that no heat can escape, or air enter in any part of the
pack, if the head be very hot, it may be left out of the pack, or the
sheet may be doubled around it, or a cold wet compress, not too much
wrung out, be placed on the forehead, and as far back on the top of the
head as practicable, which compress must be changed from time to time,
to keep it cool. Thus the patient remains.

46. The first impression of