Ice and iced water are most frequently employed in affections of the brain.  The former is most conveniently applied in a well-cleaned pig’s bladder, which should be half filled with broken fragments of the ice.  The bladder prevents moisture about the clothes, and, from its smooth and pliant nature, readily accommodates itself to every part of the child’s head.  If iced water is used, care must be taken that the cloths are sufficiently large to cover the whole of the head, and they should be doubled to prevent their getting rapidly warm.  Indeed, in applying cold locally, as in inflammation of the brain, one rule it is of the utmost importance to observe, viz. that the application of the cold shall be continuous; therefore a second set of cold cloths or bags of ice should be applied before the former has become warm.  This plan, especially pursued during the night, along with judicious internal treatment, will save many children from perishing under the most insidious and fatal disease of childhood—­water on the brain.

If neither water of a sufficiently low temperature, nor ice, can be procured, then recourse may be had to refrigerating mixtures, of which the following is a good form:—­

Common water, five pints;
Vinegar, two pints;
Nitre, eight ounces;
Sal ammoniac, four ounces.

THE WARM BATH.

The warm bath judiciously prescribed is one of the most valuable remedial agents we possess; but although powerful for good, when misapplied, it is equally powerful for mischief.  For instance, in active inflammatory affections, before the loss of blood, the use of the warm bath would greatly aggravate the disease; and yet, for an infant with active inflammation of the respiratory organs, it is continually resorted to.  Again, nothing is more common than for a child, when attacked with convulsions, to be put immediately in the warm bath; and, generally speaking, it is extremely beneficial in this class of diseases; but it is sometimes no less prejudicial, when applied without due examination of the peculiarities of individual cases.  For, in plethoric and gross children, the local abstraction of blood from the head, and the complete unloading of the alimentary canal, are often necessary to render such a measure beneficial, or even free from danger.  In convulsions, however, and particularly when arising from teething, a parent may, without hesitation, at any time immerse the feet of the infant in water as warm as can be borne, at the same time that cloths wet with cold water are applied to the head and temples.