COLD APPLICATIONS VS. COUNTER-IRRITATION. 
733 
too warm, and patient is allowed all the cold water he wishes. 
In our treatment of horses do we not follow out the same 
rules as far as possible ? Formerly with us the water was 
warmed slightly before being given, but now it is as cold as 
the water healthy horses drink. You may ask how did these 
changes in hygenic surroundings and in the warm and cold 
water drinks come about? Some clever physician, I wish I 
knew his name, studying nature’s demands in such a case as 
shown by the patient’s desires, decided to follow no longer in 
the steps of his predecessors, but to do as nature dictated, and 
a trial of such treatment completely revolutionized former 
methods. Now in the matter of the drinking of warm or 
cold water drinks with fevered patients, wherein lies the dif¬ 
ference. Why is it that the patient suffering from pyrexia 
craves cold water and does not care for the heated water? 
In both cases the elements in the water are much the same, 
if anything the heated water is the purer, yet the whole sys¬ 
tem seems by its craving for the cold to say there is too 
much heat there already, and the cold by counteracting to a 
certain extent this excessive heat is particularly agreeable to 
the sufferer and considerable amounts of it are taken with 
benefit when the warm would be refused. 
This action on the temperature being the chief, or I might 
say the only difference in the action of the cold and heated 
water, we are driven to the conclusion that it is purely 
mechanical, reducing the animal heat in pretty much the same 
manner as a cup of cold water cools a basin of warm into 
which it has been poured. 
The remarks on the action of cold water internally I have 
intended as introductory or leading up to a few thoughts on 
the action of cold water externally. When we consider the 
great benefit derived by pneumonia patients from the action 
of the cold water internally, and when we also remember that 
this beneficial action is for the most part mechanical in its 
drawing of heat from the system, does it not forcibly suggest 
the use of cold water externally ? To my mind it certainly 
does and especially in those cases where the temperature is, 
say 105° and upwards, for here the danger to the patient is 
