Prostration, Nervous.--The various articles under Nerves and Nervousness should be read. Here we give simply the treatment for failure in the digestion and bowel action. This arises from failure in the great nerve centres near the middle of the body. External treatment may be given as follows:--Dip a cotton cloth, four-ply thick, and large enough to cover the stomach and bowels, into cayenne Lotion (_see_), and lightly wring it. Lay this gently over the stomach and bowels. Over this an india-rubber bag of hot water is laid. Take care that the heat is not _too great_ or the mixture _too strong_. All must be just hot enough to be comfortable. This application may remain on for two hours, and then be repeated. The cayenne is greatly to be preferred to mustard for many reasons. Give the most easily assimilated food possible. A teaspoonful of gruel each half-hour, increased to a dessertspoonful, if the digestion will bear it, and preceded in all cases by a tablespoonful of hot water. This should be continued for twenty-four hours. Proceed very cautiously then to increase the nourishment, on the lines of Assimilation, Diet, Digestion, etc., giving oatmeal jelly, wheaten porridge, Saltcoats biscuits, and such diet, _gradually_ bringing the patient back to ordinary food. Pulse, Counting the.--Most valuable information as to the nature and progress of disease is derivable from the pulse. Every one should learn to count it, and to distinguish the broad differences in the rapidity and nature of the beat. Such a distinction as that between BRONCHITIS and ASTHMA (_see these articles_), which require almost directly opposite treatment, is at once discerned from the pulse. In bronchitis it beats much too quickly, in asthma it is natural or too slow. In many cases we have seen asthma, which in cough and spit is very like bronchitis, treated as bronchitis, with bad results. These would all have been avoided if the pulse had been intelligently counted. Count the pulse, if at all possible, for _half-a-minute_. This multiplied by two will give the rate per minute, by which it is judged. If this rate per minute be above 100, there is a good deal of feverish or inflammatory action somewhere. If below 60, there is considerable lack of vital power, requiring rest and food to restore it. In adults the rate for males is from 70 to 75 beats per minute, and for females 75 to 80. In infants the healthy pulse may be at birth 130 to 140 per minute, diminishing with increase of age. In the case of any child under five and over one year, if the pulse beats, say, 108 in the minute, it is too fast. The pulse of an adult may go down as low as 60 or even 50 per minute, but there is then something wrong. Cooling the head is always safe with high pulse and feverishness, and often this alone will ward off disease and restore the healthy condition. If the pulse be low, fomentations to the feet should be applied, along with cooling action elsewhere, if necessary.