=Vaseline.=--This is pure and refined petroleum, and will be found of much service in many forms of skin irritation. It is useful in the prevention of "chapping," for softening rough skin, for preventing and healing bleeding and cracked lips, as a protective dressing in burns, cuts, or any acute inflammation of the skin where the cuticle has been injured or destroyed, or where it is desirable that a wound should be protected and kept closed from the air. Rubbed over the surface of the body when a patient is desquamating or "peeling" after scarlet fever or measles, it keeps the skin smooth, soothes the itching, and prevents the scales from being carried about in the air and so infecting others. Vaseline is a soothing, nonirritating, and bland protective ointment for external use. It is perfectly harmless, but should not be used for severe skin disease or for internal use, unless recommended by a physician in conjunction with other means of healing. =Pond's Extract.=--Although the makers have claimed special virtues for this remedy, it is in reality an extract of hamamelis or witch-hazel, and probably differs little in its application or results from the ordinary marketed extract made by the average druggist. It is mild and bland, harmless when used externally, but should not be used internally unless ordered by a physician. It is soothing and healing when applied to wounds, sprains, and bruises; diluted with water it is a pleasant gargle for a sore throat, and may be applied externally on the throat by means of a flannel wrung out in a solution of it in hot water. For nosebleed it is often efficient when snuffed up the nose, or when pledgets of cotton are soaked in it and placed in the nostrils. It may be used as an application in ulcers or varicose veins, and from two to four teaspoonfuls with an equal amount of water injected into the rectum two or three times daily will often prove of great help in piles, particularly if bleeding. It gives relief when used for sore or inflamed eyes or eyelids, but in this, as in all other serious inflammations, it is not a "cure all," and the physician should be consulted if the relief is not prompt. =Listerine.=--Of the many mild liquid antiseptics "Listerine" is probably the best known. The remarks and recommendations concerning it, however, are equally applicable to many other remedies of a somewhat similar nature, such as glycothymoline, borolyptol, lythol, alkalol, formalid, etc. Listerine is a solution of antiseptic substances with the addition of thymol and menthol in quantities sufficient to give it a pleasant odor and taste. It has a very strong hold on the public, and is a deservedly useful remedy.