South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-02-24
BY Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

II in spite OF all vigilance, a tiny
pimple or spot of soreness shows it.
self. battle thoroughly with strong
alcohol, and if this does not relieve,
rub the moistened cork of the for
malin bottle across il a couple Of
times. or get someone 10 drop a
couple OF drops Of pure carbolic
acid on the spot. II these meas
Ures fail and the hardening seems
close TO the surface, wash your
| hands thoroughly with soap and a
scrUbbing brush, finishing of with
alcohol or some other antiseptic. If
possible. then grasp the pimple be-
tween thumb and finger and try to
! squeeze out its contents, but don't
use too much force.
Then. if the boil still keeps on
| boiling. YOU had better go promptly
10 your doctor and let him deal with
| il scientifically. The modern tend
ency is toward numbing the skin
with cocaine or other local anesthet-
ic or by a freezing spray. then
/ opening up the tiny robbers cave
and putting on an antiseptic dress
ing. which is kept soaked with an
/ alcohol solution. This will end the
trouble at once seven or eight times
out of 10. But if the bugs simply
| dig deeper away from the antisep-
/ tic, painting the surrounding skin
with iodine, or ichthyol, or colo
dion 10 protect il from further
spread Of the infection and over
I a rr-ffh
/ Grating lotion. will usually keep the
/ pain within bounds until the per-
verse little beasts turn and start for
/ the surface of their own accord,
/ and the pus comes 10 a head"
near enough TO the surface 10 be
| freely opened
POultiCe at Last Resort.
The dirty, steamy. sticky, old
fashioned poultice should never be
used, save as a last resort in those
\ rare cases where the vicious little
/ brutes keep on burrowing down as
if they intended to go clear through
/ 10 China. Then the only thing to
] be done to stop them and induce
| them 10 return, is 10 make a warm
er, juicier, GUNNER seed bed for
them to grow on on the surface
/ than anything they can find i'm the
! interior The warmth and moist
ure of the old-fashioned pOultice
did, TO limited extent relieve the
worst pain of a boil through the
two TO four days of agony which
usually had 10 be endured in the
time when we hadn't the nerve 10
lance anything until it was ripe. q"
But as a special incubator. seed
bed and circulator for bugs under
cover of whose grateful warmth and
moisture they could joy ride victor
| iously all over the surrounding skin,
I nothing has ever been invented to
equal the old-fashioned poultice.
Scores of times in the early days
of my practice have | scraped and
! scooped and clawed some foul
| smelling mass of cold sticky pud-
ding, called a poultice, off the back
OF a patients neck TO find a beauti-
| full ring of daughter boils encircling
\ the central one, like little red can
/ dies round a birthday cake. And
1 the things that those poultices used
! to be made out, from slippery elm
/ and flaXseed TO cobwebs. mud and
( the classic bucolic catalplasm
The finest, juiciest and largest
/ boil for the size of the patient that
ever saw was one on the back of
/ the hand of a farmers tiny boy.
Z which / dug out of the center of "a
very large rotten apple, which had
been carefully squashed dow o. il
under the impression that lis pulp
was drawing and the aciC in il
4 healing"
Where bOils have become into "A
, habit vigorous surgical measures
applied TO every one of them i'm be-
ing or threatening opening them up
! freely and "quarantining" each one
with "A ring of iodine or ichthyol
! painted on the surrounding skin.
will sometimes break il up and stop
I the succession. Next in Importance
is a thorough general physical ex-
animation and investigation of hab-
its of life and the correction of
anything which may be found
| wrong.
AutO-N accineS Used.
Most nOpetul OF all. on the whole.
is the method Of fighting fire with
fire" by the injection Of what are
known as auto-vaccines. That is
to say. by taking some Of the pus
or matter from the boils and grow
ing the germs which il contains i'm
an incubator. Then killing or i'm
some way lowering the vitality OF
these daughter germs and inoculat-
ing them back into the body of the
patient in the hope that its TISSUES
and fluids. by conquering them. may
learn the trick OF resisting and de-
feating their virulent and unweak-
ened ancestors. Sometimes the
scheme works. sometimes il doesn't.
but it is certainly well worth try
ing IN obstinate cases.
Internal Treatment.
No internal remedies or medicines
have any constant or reliable effect
upon boils. If the patient is suffer
ing from some chronic or system
ic disease. then the remedies which
will relieve that disease may have
an improving effect upon the crops
OF boils 10y Kidding the system OF
its handicap and enabling il TO re-
sist the spread Of the boil bugs
1