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Soapy Blanket TheSource: Papers On Health It seems necessary, in getting people to use the best means for the recovery of health, carefully to consider, not the diseases to which they are subject only, but especially the processes of cure. We require to go into the very nature of things, so to speak, and to make it all palpable to the inquirer. For example, you prescribe a little olive oil on the skin, and the nurse is horrified at its being suggested that she should "block up the pores." Her idea is that these pores are only little holes in the skin, so that, if you fill them up with oil, the insensible perspiration will not get through. Now let us observe that a pore is a complete organ in itself, and has at least three things that characterise it. (See page 285). First of all, it is a living thing. It is so as really as a finger is a living organ, or an eye, or an ear. When it dies, it is as much an opening as ever, but it ceases to secrete the perspiration which is constantly separated from the current of the blood when it was healthily alive. When it is sickly, though still living in a weak degree, it secretes, but so sluggishly that the substance which it separates from the blood does not pass off easily--it gets, so to speak, thick and sticky, and remains in the pores. In the second place, the substance which a pore secretes will not combine with certain things, and it will chemically combine readily with other things. When the pore is sickly, it may be aided, first, by the introduction of heat, which becomes vital action, and secondly, by the use of such substances as will readily combine with its secretion. The heat makes it secrete more perfectly, and the chemical combination makes the removal of the secretion easy. It is possible to block the pores up, but it is not very easy to do so. A healthy pore will send its secretions out through very close stuff. It is only by something like very strong varnish that it can be prevented. There is wonderfully little danger in ordinary life of any such "block" as this. But there is very great danger of the pore being deprived of its secretive power, and of its power to open its mouth when that is so much wanted. Warm olive oil sets millions of pores to full work sometimes in a few seconds. Now let us look at the application of the soapy blanket in the light of these remarks. Here is a poor patient, sitting in an armchair by the fireside, labouring to get breath. It makes one feel burdened to see him. What is wrong? Are the pores blocked up? No; but they are more than half dead, and what they do secrete is not such an ethereal thing as it should be. Nearly all the work of getting rid of the waste of the body has been thrown for months upon the poor lungs. The kidneys, too, have got far more than their share, just because the pores are sickly. The remedy is the soapy blanket. This most valuable means of stimulating the healthy action of the skin (as prescribed in many articles in this volume) is prepared and applied as follows:--Have a good blanket, and plenty of M'Clinton's soap (see Lather and Soap). Shear down a tablet or two into boiling water--as much water as the blanket will absorb. The blanket may be prepared as directed in article Fomentation, using these boiling suds instead of water. Have the patient's bed ready, and spread on it a double dry sheet. Soak in the suds a piece of thick flannel large enough to go round the body under the armpits. Wring this out and put it on the patient. Wrap the blanket tightly round the patient from the neck downwards. Tie something round the waist to confine it close to the body. Put the patient into bed, and wrap the feet well up in the blanket. If it is not sufficient to cover them, an extra piece of soapy flannel must be used. Then wrap the sheets over the patient above the moist blanket, and cover all nicely up. In removing the blanket, which may remain on half-an-hour, it is well to proceed gradually, uncovering the body bit by bit, sponging each part with hot water and vinegar or weak acetic acid (see Acetic Acid), and rubbing hot oil on after drying. Dry this oil off, and cover each dried part of the body either with clothing or blankets before uncovering a fresh part. There is a modification of this treatment which suits more weakly persons, and suits also those who must do all, or almost all, for themselves. A long flannel or flannelette nightdress is used in this, instead of the blanket. This is covered on the whole of the inner side with well-made soap lather. When so covered it is put on at bedtime, and a dry nightdress put on over it. Both are then fastened as closely as possible to the skin, and the patient goes to sleep thus clothed. If the night is cold, the greatest care must be taken to be well covered, and brought to as good a heat as possible. In the morning a very great change will have come from this treatment. When the whole body is washed down with warm water, dried, and nicely rubbed with fresh oil, the skin is found very considerably changed, and in case of asthma the breathing relieved. If cold is taken when this process is fairly gone through, it would be very astonishing indeed; but if it is badly done, a person might get chilled instead of comforted. Therefore every care must be taken to keep the patient thoroughly warm. The result of one effectual pack is usually sufficient to convince the poor sufferer that he is being treated in the right way. The effect of the second is greater, and so on to the fourth or fifth, beyond which he need not go as a rule. He will do well once a day to wash with hot vinegar and rub after with the oil. These should not be required more than a fortnight at most. If chilliness continues, it is well to put on cotton stockings on going to bed, and even to bathe the feet and oil them before doing so. This bathing may be continued every night for a fortnight. Next: Sores Previous: Soap M'clinton's
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