Note 3 — LIFE IN A TUB.1

“It fulfils many indications according to the various phases of disease; if you revert to what I have said of the specific actions and effects of the packing process, you will see sufficient ground for our using the invaluable aid of the wet sheet in chronic disease. We often want heat to be abstracted in these diseases, we want the nerves soothed, the circulation equalized, muscles rested, fatigue removed, a movement of the fluids to be determined to the surface, interior congestions to be disgorged, the equilibrium of the fluids established, secretions and exhalations to be promoted, ill-conditioned solids to be broken up and eliminated, the tissues of the skin to be soaked, its capillaries to be emptied and cleansed, its sentient extremities to be soothed, and through them the brain to be quieted on the one hand, and the ganglionic3 system to be roused on the other.”