a point that every nurse provides for by frequent inspection. When a blister is not at hand, steep a pewter plate or piece of flat metal in boiling water, and place it at once on the skin, pressing it down for a moment, and then allowing it to rise, and as it cools remove it; or in cases of still greater emergency, a blister may be obtained by wetting a part of the cuticle and rubbing on it for a few minutes, lunar caustic; or cut a circular hole out of a piece of adhesive plaster, which having adhered to the skin, tie some lint to the end of a stick, dip the padded end in nitric acid or aqua-fortis, and brush lightly and rapidly the skin exposed within the hole in the plaster, when a vesicle will be immediately produced. In this country it is seldom that any blister is used but that of cantharides or Spanish flies, except in extreme cases, that of mustard, as given above. The blister plaster as sold in the shops is a species of tough ointment, and is made of wax, suet, rosin, and lard, all melted over a slow fire, and while cooling the powdered flies stirred in, till the whole, when cold, becomes a smooth, firm, and tenacious mass. The mode of making a blister is to cut out a shape from a piece of adhesive plaster, either round, oval, oblong, or according to the part on which it has to be applied, and taking a piece of the blister plaster, and softening in the fingers with the right thumb wetted in water, extend it over the shape, leaving a margin of half an inch all round; the plaster is to be spread about the thickness of a shilling, and all over of an equal smoothness. This is then to be warmed for a moment before the fire, and applied evenly over the part, the edges of the plaster being nicked, where necessary, to make it lie flat. For the ears, the shape of the blister resembles the figure 6, the O part coming under the lobe of the ear, and the tail sweeping behind it; each ear, however, requires a different position of the figure, that of the left needing the 6 as it naturally stands; the right must have it reversed, as thus, 9. CARBUNCLE Is a hard circumscribed tumour of an inflammatory character, commencing in the cellular tissue and extending to the skin, and named from the intense burning pain that attends its progress. A carbuncle in general appearance resembles a boil, but differs from it in not having a core, and terminating in a gangrenous slough, instead of, as in the other, by suppuration. In whatever part of the body a carbuncle is formed, it is first indicated by great redness and violent pain, excessive itching, and a burning heat.