Electropathic externals

• Baths
• Compress
• Body pack
• Half pack, towel pack or fever compress
• Vapour bath
• Eye wash
• Gargles
• Lotions
• Oils
• Ointments
• Suppositories 

Bath

• These are best taken before going to bed.
• From 40 to 100 globules or from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful of Electricity remedies should be dissolved in the bath.
• Hot baths are preferable, used from one to seven times a week.
• The required number of globules should be thoroughly dissolved in a cupful of hot water and added to the bath.

Warm and Hot Baths

• Temperature between 92 to 98°C,
• Dissolve suitable globules or Electricities in the hot water.
• These baths render signal service in skin diseases, kidney diseases, some forms of fever, uterine affections.
• As a rule the patient should remain in a hot bath from 10 to 30 or even 60 minutes.
• When patient remains in the water a long time it is necessary to add fresh supplies of hot water from time to time in order that the temperature of the bath may be kept up.
• Care should be taken not to take a chill after coming out of a warm bath.
• The patient should be dried with a long sheet or bath towel, and well wrapped in a warm blanket immediately afterwards.

Sitz Bath

• This is best taken in a bath specially made for the purpose.
• The patient sits in it, sometimes with his feet in another small bath filled with hot water.
• The water should be about 4 inches deep.
• A bath with a double bottom, the upper one being perforated, is useful, in as much as it admits of fresh supplies of water being poured in without disturbing the patient.
• Hot sitz baths help in restoring menstruation.
• Cool sitz baths are useful in dysmenorrhoea.
• Piles, weakness of the sexual organs treated by means of these baths.

Compress

• There are three classes of compresses
• The heating or stimulating compress
• The cooling compress and
• The medicating compress

The stimulating compress

• which is prepared by wringing out a piece of lint or linen which has been dipped in water, placing outside this a piece of oiled silk, which should be a quarter of an inch larger every way than the lint, and binding the whole together with flannel.
• Its size and shape varies according as it is to be worn over the throat, the chest, the heart, or the abdomen.

The cooling compress

• which is extremely valuable in fevers and during dentition, is made by taking a strip of linen broad enough to reach from below the armpit to the waist, and long enough to encircle the body, wringing this out of water and wrapping round it two folds of dry linen.
• Care must be taken that compresses are thoroughly wrung out.
• The cooling compress becomes doubly valuable if the water used is previously medicated with Febrifugo 2 globules and White Electricity.

The medicating compress

• It may be made either with or without waterproof material.
• If it has oiled silk over it, and is bound on closely, or kept in place by the clothing it will keep warm and moist for several hours.
• It should be taken off before it becomes dry.
• The lint which has been removed should be well rinsed out of boiling water.
• If a compress is made of old linen, this should be soaked in boiling water so as to remove any soap or soda which may remain in it.
• A thick covering of flannel alone should be used if oiled silk causes irritation, and always over open wounds.
• The medicated lotions for moistening the compresses, when waterproof material is used and the compress is thus a heating compress, are usually made by dissolving 10 to 20 globules in a tumbler of water.
• These should be changed as soon as dry.
• If no waterproof material is used a larger number of globules ( 30 to 40 ) may be used.
• Lotions for Compresses may be kept ready - made in a bottle.
• 3 or 4 globules may be allowed for each ounce of water.
• If Electricity is added the proportion is 1 drop to each globule.
• As a rule it is better to use the warm compress for the throat and the cool compress for the head, eyes, and legs.

Body Pack

• This is very useful in gastric and other fevers.
• Take a sheet.
• Dip it in a bucket of water in which a few ( 20 to 25 ) globules of Febrifugo 2 have been dissolved.
• Wring it thoroughly out by means of a mangle or wringer.
• Lay it on a bed, over which a waterproof sheet and a couple of blankets have been spread.
• Smooth it well out.
• Then lay the patient naked on this sheet, which should project beyond his feet.
• Take hold of one side of the sheet, and raising his arms, wrap this side tightly over the body and tuck it under the opposite side of the body.
• Then place his arms along his sides, tuck the other side of the sheet over the arms and body, and turn the projecting ends over the feet. (In some cases, however, it is better to leave the feet projecting beyond the sheet, and to apply hot bottles to them).
• Then tuck the upper part of the sheet tightly over the patient's shoulders, tuck the blankets well over his feet, sides and neck, so as to entirely exclude the cold air, and put a stout quilt or extra blanket over all. After a while the patient will feel very comfortable and may even fall asleep.
• It is usual to give him draughts of cold water while he is in the pack.
• Sips of Febrifugo 1 in the second or third dilution would be very useful.
• After he has been in the pack from 30 to 60 minutes he should stand on a hot pad laid in a shallow bath, be well sponged over with vinegar and tepid water, dried rapidly with a very large bath sheet or towel and put to bed.
• A compress wrung out of a quarter of a pint of cold water in which two globules of Angioitico 3 have been dissolved, may be applied to the forehead during the packing to relieve congestion.

Half - pack, Towel - pack or Fever Compress

• This is a very valuable modification of the preceding, and is extremely useful in the treatment of fevers.
• The plan adopted is to take a strip of calico, linen, or a towel, wring it thoroughly out of water, medicated with Febrifugo 2, as before.
• Wrap this tightly round the trunk of the body and put a protecting bandage outside it.

Vapour Bath

• This is very serviceable in the treatment of some forms of rheumatism and skin disease.
• It is best taken in a specially prepared apparatus.
• But it may also be taken in the following way :
• Take a cane - seat chair.
• Place a piece of flannel over it. Seat the patient upon this.
• Tie a crinoline - like frame over him and the chair.
• Over this fasten blankets in such a way that when they are let down they will keep in the steam about to be introduced beneath the chair.
• Then set a bucket of boiling water beneath the chair, taking care that the surface of the water is not so near the seat that the steam will scald the patient.
• Then let the blankets down and allow him to be bathed in steam for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Should it be needful, it is easy to produce a fresh supply of steam, by gently plunging a hot brick or heated iron into the water.
• It is a good plan to place the patient's feet in hot water and to give him sips of cold water during the bath.
• A head band, wrung out of cold water, may be worn around the forehead.
• After the steaming the patient should be rapidly bathed with tepid water, well dried, and put to bed.

Eyewash

• Dissolve 2 to 3 globules of marina in a glassful of tepid water, and bathe the eye with this once or twice a day, Or take a one ounce phial.

Gargles  

• The proportions of the remedies used for medicating water for gargling are from 10 to 20 globules, or 8 to 10 drops of Electricity, to a tumblerful of water.
• Use from two to three times a day, or oftener if it is found beneficial to do so .

Lotions

• Dissolve from 10 to 30 globules in, or add 1 desert spoonful of Electricity to, an eight ounce bottleful of water.
• When baths cannot be taken, the whole body may be well rubbed over with a towel soaked in a suitable lotion.

Oils

• Made by dissolving 10 to 20 globules in a few drops of hot water in a bottle and adding one ounce of sweet oil.
• Shake thoroughly before using.
• Rub two or three times a day.

Ointments

• Made by dissolving 10 to 20 globules in half a 30 grains or a quarter of a teaspoonful of water or the appropriate Electricity, and when quite dissolved, beating thoroughly well up with one ounce of lanoline, white vaseline, fresh lard or other pure ointment. ( Scrof . dissolved in Red Electricity , Feb. or Linf. in White , Canc . dissolved in Green Electricity , Ang . in Blue ).
• Apply once or twice a day.

Suppositories

• It is made of Canc . 5 and Green El . are also obtainable, and are useful in cancer of the rectum or of the uterus .
• Similar suppositories of Ang . 2 or 3 and Blue El. are valuable accessories in the treatment of hæmorrhage, piles and obstinate constipation .
• Before introducing the suppositories they should be well lubricated with pure olive oil.