For severe pain from colic, neuralgia or acute inflammation, the bath should be taken warm, and in some instances, quite hot; this should be continued fifteen or twenty minutes, protecting the patient carefully with blankets, after which she should, without removing them, lie on the bed and rest. HOT FOMENTATIONS are usually administered by applying to the affected part a flannel cloth wrung out of simple or medicated hot water. Some physicians prescribe bags of hops, tanzy, smart-weed, etc., or Indian meal or flaxseed poultice, to be kept hot in a steamer. All these appliances are remonstrated against by patients and nurses. They are disagreeable and untidy. The bed gets wet and soiled, the patient likewise. Moist heat is wanted, but one is more likely to get moist cold, which has a dampening effect upon both body and mind. The nurse scalds her hands, ruins clothing, and execrates the doctor who prescribed them. The very best method of making hot applications is by means of the rubber “hot water bottle.” These hold from one to four quarts, and can be readily procured. Boiling water can be used in them, and the heat will be retained many hours. They are soft, pliable and agreeable to the touch, and adjust themselves to every part of the body. When moisture is desired, place a wet cloth under them. _No well regulated family should be without a hot water bottle._ When, however, this is lacking, there are several convenient modes of making hot applications. Put part of a sheet or blanket around the patient, to protect the bed and clothing. Then lay a newspaper upon a cook stove, or flat top of a heating stove. Wring a large flannel cloth dry as possible out of cold or tepid water. Lay it between the folds of the paper, and it will soon steam hotter than can be handled. Take it to the patient and place it underneath the sheet, in contact with the body. Have another cloth heating, to take the place of this one when it ceases to be hot. The moist cloth can also be kept hot by putting it on a tin plate which is in the oven or on top of a stove. The virtue of a fomentation is in the heat, and it must be kept hot. Another still more simple method, desirable where the patient must wait upon herself, is to place over the part affected a cloth wrung from warm water; then lay over it a hot stove lid, wrapped securely in paper. This will retain heat for a long time, and gives the patient opportunity for rest. THE HOT FOMENTATION is a valuable remedial agent. It is rare to find acute suffering, where it is not indicated. It alleviates neuralgia and rheumatic pain. It is good for biliousness, constipation and torpid liver. It relieves colic and flatulence, and is of special value in menstrual pain or suppression. Thoroughly applied, acute diseases may be arrested without other aids.