Poultices are generally made of bread and milk boiled together, so as to form a thick kind of paste, to which is added, so much olive oil as will preserve it from hardening quickly[23]. These ought to be applied, either of the same temperature with the inflamed part, or hotter, according to circumstances. When the inflammation seems to be naturally and quickly tending toward suppuration, it is, as has been already mentioned, by no means essential, that any application be made externally, in order to induce the suppurative action[24]; but still poultices are used, and, in many cases, accelerate the progress. In this case, the poultices should only be applied so hot as not to give any considerable sensation of heat, otherwise we increase the action too much, and too rapidly, and, if early employed, may even interrupt, or stop the incipient purulent action, renewing the inflammation, and perhaps making it terminate in partial gangrene. Poultices, then, should not be applied very hot at first, especially when the action seems to be such as to make us expect that it shall run its course without any assistance. But when the inflammatory action has been more tedious, and does not terminate in the suppurative one so soon, and so decidedly as we would wish, then poultices must be applied, with a different intention, being meant, not solely to prevent the action from sinking, as in the first case, but also to raise it, and make it brisker. The heat must therefore be greater, and such as to give a considerable sensation; and the poultices, instead of being changed only when they begin to grow hard[25], which is perhaps all that is necessary in the first case, must be renewed very frequently, in order to keep up the increased degree of heat, or the agent which supports the action, and accelerates its progress. They ought, in this case, to be taken off and warmed, or renewed almost every hour, at least when the action is tedious, that is to say, when they are most required. We are then not to lay down any certain degree of heat which is to be employed, nor fix any particular number of times at which the poultices must, in every instance, be changed, but regulate our practice entirely by the nature of each particular instance, taking the progress and degree of the action as our guide, in this respect, and interfering exactly in proportion to the necessity for interference. It may not, however, be improper to remark, that, cæteris paribus, the heat must be greater in proportion to the depth of the inflamed part below the skin; or, in other words, we must apply more heat, when we are obliged to act on a part not yet inflamed, than when we act directly on the inflamed part itself. When an abscess forms at a distance from the surface, the parts betwixt it and the surface gradually come, as was formerly mentioned, to assume the purulent action; and the sympathy of equilibrium, which naturally exists betwixt the surface and the parts