Lather, Legs, Limb

Papers on Health
by John Kirk

(Page 12 of 21)

As we have said (see Skin, Care of) clothing should be loose and porous in order that the skin may perform its functions. Corsets are both tight and impervious. The constriction of any part of the body by tight bands, and the hanging of the clothes from the hips, are highly injurious.

It is frequently urged that corsets are necessary if a woman is to have well-fitting clothes and a neat figure, but this is by no means the case. We illustrate a "good health waist" which has the advantage of allowing freedom of movement and respiration, producing no constriction of any part, and yet being well-fitting. Buttons are arranged, as shown in the illustration, to support the skirts so that their weight falls equally from the shoulders. This waist can be had from the Good Health Supply Department, 451 Holloway Road, London, N., who will send particulars on receipt of a post card.

Lancing Swellings - See Abscess.

Lather, How to make - One of the most powerful soothing influences which can be had, is found in the lather of M'Clinton's soap, so often recommended in these pages. Applied to the skin over a stomach which has been rejecting all food, and even retching on emptiness, for hours, it will almost at once stop the irritation. Applied to the head it is invaluable (see Brain; Head; Hearing, etc.), and in many cases we have known it perform almost miracles of soothing effect. But the lather must be rightly made, and none but this soap used, if good results are to be got. Lather is first Soap, secondly Water, and thirdly Air, so wrought together to make a mass like whipped cream, or only a little more fluid.

To get this, dip a good shaving brush in hot water, rub it on the soap a little, take another slight dip of hot water, and work the brush in the hollow of the left hand patiently, until you have a handful of fine creamy foam, sufficiently solid not to run like water, and yet as soft in its consistency as cream. There is in the hand just the temperature, consistency, and shape that are required for working the lather, and no dish can properly replace it. The lather is to be gathered from the hand with the brush (a soft badger's-hair one preferred), and laid with it on the skin of the patient wherever necessary. Then another handful is quickly made, and so on until the required surface is covered. Or the lather may be transferred to a hot dish, placed over a bowl of boiling water, till enough is ready. After the application, a soft handkerchief may be laid loosely on, and, if the lather is to remain on as a pack, a dry covering put over this.

In many cases where it is inconvenient to apply the lather direct to the skin, it may be spread on a warm cloth of soft and clean linen or cotton, and this laid over the part to be treated before it is cold. This will also apply where the patient is too weak to sit or lie in the position required for lathering the skin. A dry cloth must be put on the top of the soapy one, and all fastened on by proper wrapping. In cases, however, where the skin has to be lathered in order to soothe the nervous system or to allay irritation of internal organs, it is well, if at all possible, to apply the lather direct to the skin, as described above.

Lather of this soap, made in this way, may be spread on the most sensitive sores (when ulcers have eaten through both outer and inner skins) with only a very slight feeling of smarting to the patient, and with the most healing effect. It is very different with soda soap made in the usual way. When the skin of the head has got inflamed (as we saw in the case of a child the other day, where the back of the head was a matted mass of most distressing sores), it is charming to see the effect of this lather. We took a number of handfuls of it, and soaked the matted hair and inflamed skin till the poor child looked up with an expression of astonished relief.

Legs, Pricking Pains in - Sometimes curious pricking pains are felt in the legs, becoming so severe as even to confine a patient to bed. Nothing can be seen on the skin, and no swelling or other visible sign of trouble is present. Evidently this requires treatment more particularly of the nerves, which go to maintain a proper balanced state of feeling in the skin where the pricking is felt. The patient must give up using alcohol in any form, and should rest in bed. In treatment we do not look to the skin itself, but rather to the nerves, to effect a cure. There is a failure at the nerve roots, and indeed the patient will usually be weak and nervous generally. A popular remedy in such a case might be arsenic, which must be avoided, as likely greatly to injure instead of help. The cure is in increased nutrition of the nerve substances, by rest and light dietary. See Biscuits and Water, Diet.

Limb, Saving a - The proper growth of the body in any part depends on the power furnished by the nervous system and the cells of that part. This power enables these cells to use the nutritive substance in the blood for the formation of new tissue. By this process, growth in the healthy body is continuous through life, replacing equally continuous waste. But this all depends on a due balance of power in the process. Suppose one eats more than can be changed into healthy tissue, the food may all go into blood, but the nervous power of the cells is insufficient to deal with it. Sluggish living in bad air, tobacco, or alcoholic drinks, will all cause this. Then some slight wound or bruise is received, and the overloaded blood fails to act healthfully and heal this. A sore is formed, most likely somewhere in the foot or leg, and the limb goes from bad to worse in spite of all efforts, while this inequality between the blood and the tissues continues.

This goes on perhaps for years, and no effort is made to remedy it. Such a case may often be very easily cured, even where doctors pronounce it hopeless, if the patient will submit to proper regimen and treatment. Let the limb be thoroughly bathed, as far above the knee as possible, with water as hot as can be borne (see Bathing Feet). Pour into the water about half-a-pint of strong vinegar. Keep up the heat for an hour. Repeat three times each day - at 11 a.m., 4 p.m., and at bedtime. Rest from treatment on the Sabbath. When perspiration follows this bath, dry the patient all over, and rub with vinegar. Dry this off and rub with olive oil. Dry again, and put on clothes.

Printed by Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport. 1904.