Fomentation Uses of
The fomentation, especially when used alternately with the heating compress, is particularly indicated when swellings are to be reduced, or deposits about joints or in soft tissues (exudates and affusions) to be absorbed; when increased quan¬tities of blood are needed locally; and when the functional activity of a part is sluggish, requiring awakening. The fo¬mentation is used especially for the relief of pain. Very hot applications (140 to 160 degrees) lessen the sensibility of the nerves of the skin; and, while the first effect is stimulating, the secondary and continuous effect is soothing. However, few skins can endure a temperature of 160 degrees. In all cases of acute inflammation of the surface structures, the fomentation may be used for five to ten minutes every two or three hours to advantage; and for the relief of severe pain it perhaps has no equal in all therapeutic measures.
There are so many abnormal conditions that are success¬fully influenced by the fomentation that it is impossible to enumerate them all. Among these are inflammations of the abdominal and pelvic organs (female and male), including the bladder; of the eye, ear and other head structures, including meningitis; of the joints and spine; of the neck and throat, including tonsillitis, diphtheria, laryngitis and croup; of the chest, including pleurisy and pneumonia; and in such condi¬tions as hemorrhoids, inflammation of the testicles, boils, acne, hysteria, acute St. Vitus’s dance, general tic, neuroses of oc¬cupation, typhoid fever, smallpox, influenza, scarlet fever, diabetes, gastric and duodenal ulcer, hyperacidity, cholera morbus and cholera infantum, colic, wryneck, irreducible hernia, inflammation of the heart, coughs, gallstone colic, lymphangitis, neuralgia, neuritis, the pain of pericarditis, sciatica, superficial abscesses, adhesions, bone diseases, and to relieve the pain of beriberi.
Many other conditions are bene¬fited by these applications, such as carbuncle, cramps, epididy-mitis with pain, nervous excitement, facial paralysis (locally), felons, flatulence, suppurative inflammation of glands, spasm of the glottis, anemic headache, acute heart conditions with slow pulse, heart-failure, hiccough, acute indigestion, influenza (to spine), inflamed joints; to the spine in after-treatment of malaria; acute prostatitis, stiff neck; to the spine after the sec¬ond day in improved cases of meningitis, topthache, vomiting (to abdomen), vulvar diseases, abdominal pains, suppurating abscess, angina pectoris, anthrax, bladder conditions, conges¬tion of the brain (to upper neck).