RHEUMATISM. 27% 
the disease has been routed; its purpose being to assist in building up the gen- 
eral health. 
Local measures hold first place. While the pain is severe, decided relief may 
often be obtained by means of hot baths, the patient being kept in the same for 
nearly ten minutes. If the foreshoulders are affected, he should be immersed up 
to his neck, but not necessarily so deeply if the loins alone are the seat of the 
trouble. The water should be at first “comfortably warm,” and after a short 
time very hot water be continually added to the bath until the temperature is 
as high as can be borne. On being removed the subject should be sponged, 
then rubbed dry with soft towels, and afterward wrapped in hot blankets. 
While the pain persists but little can rightly be expected from the use of lini- 
ments, yet they can be tried if one has confidence in them, and the following 
promises well :— 
Chloroform, tincture of aconite-root, and oil of cajuput, of each one-half an 
ounce; soap liniment, four ounces. 
This in generous quantity should be quickly rubbed through the coat to the 
skin over the affected parts, two or three times daily; and at once covered, 
to prevent evaporation. 
The parts affected by rheumatism should be kept constantly warm, because . 
exposure to air alone, even if it is of only a little lower temperature than the 
body, will cause exacerbations of pain. Therefore where the foreshoulders or 
loins are the seat of the trouble a jacket or blanket should be fitted closely and 
nicely adjusted ; and the same be made of several thicknesses of flannel or cot- 
ton wadding. While for leg-joints, flannel bandages can be used. 
That ointments may have considerable effect, the rubbing must be more 
vigorous than that required with liniments. As soon as the tenderness has. 
subsided sufficiently to permit the use of the former the following might be 
tried: 
Salicylate of sodium, thirty parts; iodoform, ten parts; extract of hyos- 
cyamus, five parts; vaselin, one hundred parts. This should be applied quite 
freely, and rubbed into the affected joints until it has disappeared. 
Another ointment of value in very painful cases is composed as follows: Vas- 
elin, twenty-five parts ; salicylic acid, four parts; sodium salicylate, three parts; 
extract of belladonna, one part. 
To be well rubbed in, and then covered with cotton. 
As soon as the condition of the painful parts will permit, massage and move- 
ments in the natural ways should be practised, two or three times daily, for the 
purpose of keeping the muscles active and well nourished, and preventing 
atrophy or wasting. If neither of the ointments recommended is being used, 
some simple liniment can be employed if desired; and the camphorated soap 
liniment is quite as serviceable as any other. 
Where joints are affected and the disease has been of long standing, painting 
