Circlets of blistering fluid applied above all the affected joints {69} simultaneously, as practised especially by Herbert Davies,[210] often afford prompt relief to the pain, but they do not invariably protect the heart, in my experience. [Footnote 210: _London Hospital Reports_, vol. i., 1864, 292.] The hygienic and dietetic management of acute articular rheumatism demands careful attention. While the room should be well supplied with fresh air and sunlight, it should be kept at a uniform temperature and free from draughts. Feather and other very soft beds should be prohibited. Many authorities put the patient between heavy blankets, which I regard as a mistake. The bed-clothing should be light and just sufficient to keep the patient agreeably warm; the night-gown may be of thin flannel and the sheets of cotton. The excess of perspiration should be removed by gentle rubbing with a warm towel at regular intervals, and the sheets should be changed frequently before they become almost saturated with the perspiration. Fatigue and exposure of the patient's person when taking food, attending to his natural calls, or having his personal or bed-clothing changed should be specially guarded against. The diet in the early actively febrile stage should consist of panada, corn-meal or oat-meal gruel, milk, and barley-water, or even pure milk. Where persons will not take milk the various thin animal broths to which good barley-water or arrowroot or well-boiled rice has been added, jellies, sago and other starchy puddings, may be allowed. Suitable drinks are--plain water, Seltzer and Apollinaris water, carbonic-acid water, lemonade. This low, unstimulating diet should be observed until all fever and articular inflammation have subsided, the tongue become clean, and the visceral inflammations declined, and a return to solid food, and especially to animal food, should be made cautiously. Eggs are to be regarded as of very doubtful safety in this disease. As a very general rule, ales, wines, and the stronger alcoholic liquids are objectionable, but they may be required under the same conditions as in other fevers. Should the salicylates depress the heart, old wine or whiskey may be given with advantage. During convalescence the patient should not be permitted to leave his bed for several days after complete removal of the fever and articular pain, and for the first four days he should occupy a sofa or easy-chair. Premature walking may induce relapse. An occasional alkaline or sulphur bath, if cautiously taken, sometimes appears to complete the recovery. If endocarditis have existed, a longer rest is desirable, more especially in severe cases, in order that the reparative process going on in the lately inflamed valves may not be in the least disturbed. Chronic Articular Rheumatism,