The tendency of late years is to dispense with the use of drugs as far as possible and resort to other methods of accomplishing the same results. One of the most important therapeutic procedures in common use in the modern hospital for mental diseases is hydrotherapy. This should be used intelligently if any results are expected. Sending the patient to the hydriatic department where identically the same treatment is applied to all cases whether of excitement, depression, exhaustion, etc., by an attendant who has no knowledge of either medicine, psychiatry or nursing may be referred to as the application of water to the exterior, but it is not hydrotherapy. Hydriatic treatments should be prescribed by a physician who has a thorough familiarity with that particular therapeutic procedure and every patient should receive the form adapted to his individual needs. The treatment should be given by an expert hydrotherapist. The equipment should provide for hot air, electric light, vapor and saline baths, Sitz baths, circular, rain, fan, jet and Scotch douches, dry, hot and cold packs, etc. Much can be accomplished by tonic, stimulating and eliminative therapy. Sedative treatments are much used in hospitals for mental diseases. The hot air bath[32] is given at from 134 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit for from four to ten minutes, preceded by a foot bath at from 104 to 110 degrees. The patient enters the electric light and vapor bath at the room temperature, the baths being continued from four to eight minutes usually. The needle spray is given at a temperature ranging from 96 to 102 degrees, with a pressure of from twenty to thirty pounds, and continued from one to two minutes. The fan douche starts at 90 degrees, is reduced gradually with a pressure of from twenty to twenty-five pounds and is continued for from fifteen to twenty seconds. The jet douche is first used at 90 degrees and gradually reduced, with a pressure of from fifteen to twenty-five pounds, for from ten to twenty seconds. The Scotch douche is used at a temperature of 80 degrees alternating with 110, with from fifteen to thirty pounds pressure. It should be used with extreme care. The same is true of vapor douches. The saline bath contains five pounds of ordinary salt to sixty gallons of water at a temperature of 94 degrees and is continued from ten to thirty minutes. The dry pack is usually continued from twenty to forty-five minutes, although it may be used longer with safety. In the use of the hot blanket pack the inner blanket is wrung out of water at from 140 to 160 degrees and must be applied with great care. Depending on the condition of the patient, etc., the cold wet pack is given with sheets wrung out of water at a temperature ranging from 50 to 60 degrees, although lower temperature may be used. "Neutral" wet sheet packs are often used at a temperature of from 100 to 116 degrees for approximately three-quarters of an hour, as preparatory treatments.