When Conven are Mis
The first and second methods of taking the bedroom bath— with hands or brush—will be more enjoyable to some people, the third method to others, but the last is the best method when splashing must be avoided. A good tonic bath may be taken with no other equipment than an ordinary wash-basin, though the addition of an absorbent bath-mat or at least a rubber bath-mat or rubber sheet is an advantage.
Upon jumping out of bed in the morning (the best time for this bath, though naturally not the only satisfactory time), dip both hands in the basin of water, which should have been
Method of Taking Bedroom Bath
prepared the night before if there is no running water in the room, and bring up several handfuls of water directly to the face. The effect of water applied in this way is very different from that of merely rubbing the face with the moistened palm and much more enjoyable. Now take as much water as the hand will carry and apply it around the neck with some rubbing. Then scoop up water with the right hand, taking it up the left arm over the shoulder and into the armpit. Do the same with the left hand over and under the right arm. Then bring several good splashes over the chest and trunk,
working the hands around the back and wetting that part asr much as possible. Give each leg a rub upward from the ankle to the hip with as much water as it is convenient to use. Now, if the bowl is portable, place it on the floor, squat over it, and give the lower abdomen, loins and external genitals as quick a splash bathing as possible. Finish by dipping each foot in the basin and quickly rubbing it from toes to heel. Follow this excellent bath with a vigorous hand or scrubbing brush application followed by a rub-down, taking care that the body is thoroughly dried and that reaction is prompt and com¬plete. Exercise in the nude before dressing if com*enient, espe¬cially if reaction is tardy or incomplete. This bath may be taken with the basin on the floor if desired, or, except for the final part, on a chair or on a suitable table. The other method of taking the bedroom bath is described under Towel Hub, Cold. BLANKET PACK, HOT.—A blanket pack is always applied hot, never cold, and consists merely of wrapping a patient in a woolen blanket wrung from as hot water as his skin can stand comfortably.
It is applied as follows:
Hot-Blanket Pack
On a suitable bed or couch, with firm mattress, a rubber sheet is spread so as to extend over a pillow placed at the head. Over the rubber sheet three or four woolen blankets are placed, these also covering the pillow. A final blanket is wrung from water at high temperature (155 to 165 degrees), and spread quickly upon the dry blankets. The patient, free from all clothing, places himself upon this, and the various coverings are quickly wrapped about him. See Wet-Sheet Pack for method of applying. It is advisable that some heating medium, preferably hot-water bottles, be placed at the feet, for the effect of the pack is to supply heat to the body and stimulate the circulation, often to induce marked perspira¬tion. After a very brief time at the start the pack becomes in effect a vapor bath, the body being enveloped in vapor held about, it by the rubber sheet.
In old age and cases of extreme weakness the hot-blanket pack is sometimes better for producing increased skin activity than the cold wet-sheet pack. It is more convenient to apply and often more comfortable than a full tub bath. In cases of chill it often proves useful. There are other occasions, also, where it is necessary or advisable to produce sweating quickly. Among these are acute infections. In such cases, instead of the cold-sheet pack, the hot-blanket pack will be beneficial. Its effect is almost immediate, but great care must always be taken not to allow it to continue too long, as it then becomes exhausting and depressing.
This is a good procedure for preparing the body for some cold application, though, if used for such a purpose, the patient must be removed quickly when the body has become warmed, and the cold hath given without delay. As a rule this pack is preferred by patients to the cold wet-sheet pack, with its initial and unpleasant cold shock. But because of the feeling of comfort it gives there may be the inclination to repeat it often enough to produce a pronounced atonic effect.
The hot-blanket pack gives very good results in the ti-eat-ment of main’ diseases, some of which are carbuncle, chills, cholera, delirium trernens, dropsy of pregnancy, beginning of fevers, glanders, hay-fever, inflammation without fever, joint affections, acute Bright’s disease without fever, dropsy of the kidney, acute yellow atrophy of the liver, hydrophobia, lymphangitis, malaria without fever, first day of measles, first day of meningitis, milk-leg (applied to leg and abdomen), multiple neuritis, ptomaine poisoning, tetanus, chronic alco¬holism, extravasation of urine, muscular rheumatism, peri¬tonitis and lobar pneumonia.