144 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 



BOILS. 



We feel that it would be superfluous to attempt to define a boil. Most people 

 have a pretty clear idea of what they are like. A man who has once had a boil is 

 not likely to forget it. It is a kind of thing that impresses itself on the memory. 

 It makes, if not a favourable, at all events a lasting, impression. 



Boils are not particular where they come. As a rule, they prefer the posterior 

 region, and then a chair becomes a useless article of furniture. They are not averse 

 to making their appearance on the back of the neck, just where the edge of the 

 collar catches you. Sometimes they come on the back, just under the braces, 

 and a favourite spot for them is on the forehead, where it is rubbed by the rim 

 of the hat. Although often out of sight, they are seldom out of mind. Sometimes 

 they come singly, but, on the whole, they prefer to come in crops, or in a series of 

 crops, one after another. Some people are very susceptible to them, and generally 

 have one or two about them somewhere. In these peculiarly gifted individuals 

 they come out on the verv slightest provocation. You put a poiAfcice on to cure 

 one, and half-a-dozen otftrs, nattered by the attention, make their appearance. 

 Occasionally a blister is followed by a crop of boils, and an ordinary plaster has been 

 known to bring them out. 



A boil is of no practical value. It is said that everything has its use, but this 

 certainly does not apply to boils. They are of no use ; and few people consider them 

 ornamental. They do not improve your personal appearance, and they do not add to 

 your comfort. We are told, on good authority, that in many cases they must be 

 looked upon as salutary, as being the means adopted by Nature to rid the system of 

 morbid matters that irritate the constitution. This may be, but a boil is a violent 

 remedy. Most people, if they had the choice, would prefer a less energetic means 

 of having the system cleared out. Scientific doctors usually call them furuncttU, 

 but even then they are rather painful. 



It is very difficult to say what boils are due to. They are generally ascribed to 

 a " disordered condition of the blood," or to " atmospheric causes," or to " depressing 

 influences." As a rule, they come in spring; but they appear to have no particular 

 objection to summer, autumn, or winter. They are far more prevalent some years 

 than others : 1857 and 1858 were good boil years. They usually make their ap- 

 pearance at especially inconvenient times, and they commonly pay a pretty long visit. 

 As a rule, they prefer stout, full-bodied people ; but in default of better material, 

 they will attack the anaemic and debilitated. They take an interest in athletic sports, 

 and those who are in training often make their acquaintance. They are often to 

 be found in company with the now almost extinct animal the prize-fighter. They 

 seem to be favourably disposed to good living, for they often put in an appearance 

 when people take to living on a more liberal scale. When a young woman 

 "goes to service" for the first time, she often develops boils. She has probably 

 been living in the country all her life, and has had plenty of out-door exercise and 

 not too much to eat. When she comes up to London she seldom gets out till after 

 dark, and eats meat three times a day, and the result is boils. The subjects of 

 eaccharine diabetes often suffer frightfully from boils, and in them they are by no 



