HOT-WATER BAGS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 20, 14 May 1892, Page 504

HOT-WATER BAGS.

The efficacy of hot water in inflammatory conditions can hardly be overrated. To a limited extent its value has long been known. Our mothers and grandmothers made use of woollen cloths dipped in hot water in some forms of inflammation. At present the worth of this remedy in almost all forms of pain is generally recognized by the medical profession.

Hot cloths, however, are not convenient of application in many cases. They are apt to wet the clothing, and they soon cool and require repeated dipping. The rubber bag is in every respect superior. Once brought to the proper temperature, the heat ts long retained ; it is neat, and in every way easy of application. Every family in the country, as well as in the city, should have at least one ready for any emergency. Says the Medical Mirror:

‘ As a profession, we do not sufficiently appreciate hotwater bags. The amount of comfort in one of them cannot be known except from actual experience. There should be, if possible, half a dozen bags of various sizes in the sickroom, easy of access and ready for use.’ Rubber bags are also of great value in cold weather for persons of weak circulation. They are much superior as foot-warmers to heated soap-stones. To many an aged person such a bag placed against the back in bed is exceedingly agreeable and soothing.

The same bags may also be of great service in cases of high fever, if partly filled with pounded ice or ice-cold water. Placed along the spine and at the base of the brain, or around the head, they rapidly reduce the temperature and soothe the patient. Generally, however, ice-bags are made of thinner and more delicate rubber. A writer in the magazine above mentioned says : ‘ Once when I had gone some ten miles into the country, and had happened to carry with me one of these little bags, I brought it into immediate requisition on a patient with a temperature of one hundred and six degrees, whose bead was rioting in pain. ‘ Before I left the house he declared that he would not take a thousand pounds for the relief produced by the simple rubber-bag half-filled with ice.’