le, removing a severe inflammatory
fever in two hours and a half, telling me "she would rather see the
child die, than have her packed again," although she acknowledged the
pack to have been the means of her speedy recovery. It is true there was
some trouble with the child, but only because the whole family were
assembled in the sick-room to excite the child through their
unseasonable lamentations and expressions of sympathy about the
"dreadful" treatment to which she was going to be submitted. Grandmother
would not have objected to a pound of calomel!--But we shall speak
about objections and difficulties in a more proper place.

51. NO CUTTING SHORT OF THE PROCESS OF SCARLATINA--THE MORBID POISON
MUST BE DRAWN TO THE SKIN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Scarlet-fever is a disease, which cannot be cut short. Any attempt to
stop the process of incubation, after the contagion has once been
received within the body, or to prevent its being thrown out upon the
surface, would destroy the patient's life: the morbid poison must be
concocted, and it _must come away by being drawn to the skin as soon as
possible_, to prevent its settling in the vital parts, and injuring
them. The safest way of assisting nature in her efforts of eliminating
the poison, is to open the way, which she points out herself. We know
that the sooner and the more completely the eruption makes its
appearance, the brighter and the more constant the rash, the less there
is danger for the patient, and _vice versa_. Well, there is not a better
remedy than the wet-sheet pack, to serve the purpose of nature, i. e.,
to remove the morbid poison from the inner organs, and draw it to the
surface; whilst at the same time it allays the symptoms, improves the
condition of the skin for the development of the rash, and relieves the
patient, without depriving him of any part of that organic power so
indispensable for a cure, and without which the best physician in the
world becomes a mere blank. Under the process of wet-sheet packing, the
heat invariably abates, the pulse becomes slower and softer, the
violence of the symptoms is alleviated, the skin becomes moist, the
restlessness and anxiety of the patient give way to a more quiet and
comfortable condition; he perspires and falls in a refreshing sleep. Is
there any other remedy, that has the same general and beneficial effect?
I know of none.

52. NECESSITY OF VENTILATION--MEANS OF HEATING THE SICK-ROOM--RELATIVE
MERITS OF