All surgeons are familiar with the good results which follow the application of a poultice to an acutely inflamed surface-part. Quite recently a woman has been under my care with inflammation of the tissues about the internal saphenous vein. She has progressed quite well towards convalescence by keeping the limb at rest, and by having the inflamed vein-track covered with a large poultice of linseed meal; no other treatment has been required. It is a common fault, not so much perhaps in hospital as in private practice, not to give a poultice the chance of curing a local inflammation by limiting its application to the part affected. A poultice to be of any use should widely cover the tissues which surround the seat of inflammation; for example, if the hand is inflamed the poultice should not only completely envelope it, but should extend at least half-way up the fore-arm: and this rule holds good especially when poultices are used for superficial or for subcutaneous diffused inflammation. A little girl I saw recently in Sitwell ward had a fierce attack of inflammation, after measles, which involved one side of her face and neck. As it threatened to lead to suppuration we made three punctures, carried deeply amongst the tissues, and then applied a succession of large poultices to the entire of the affected side. In twenty-four hours the child, from a condition of great depression, was well enough to leave the hospital—the swelling was much reduced, probably by the draining away of serous fluid, but no suppuration was established. I often direct a bubo to be punctured with a grooved needle, the needle being carried across so as to make a double opening; poultices are then applied, and if the parts are moderately rested, the swelling will usually subside; if the bubo is suppurating the same treatment will suffice to evacuate the pus, and this having discharged the bubo disappears, and no trace even remains of the openings through which the pus has passed out. In cases such as those referred to, some without, some with a surface lesion, the mischief is remedied without any suppurative action being set up by the use of the poultices. It is desirable, when there is much discharge into a poultice, to dust over the skin about the openings whence the discharge issues some oxide of zinc, or some other drying powder; if this precaution is not taken the matter will irritate and probably enlarge the opening, or will produce vesicles, which break and leave excoriations, or painful papulæ on the adjacent integument. It should be remembered also that great heat is not needed with the poultice; it should be comfortably warm to the patient, and should never be allowed to get, by comparison with its condition when applied, so cold as to lessen the temperature of the part.