Various methods of counter-irritation are employed in the treatment of diseases of the abdominal viscera. For the relief of nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, colic, cholera-morbus, etc., no expedient is more generally useful than a mustard-plaster. In persistent vomiting, a small blister applied to the epigastrium will often afford permanent relief. The good effects of a blister in such cases are enhanced by dusting over the exposed derma some powdered morphine. In acute inflammatory affections — typhlitis, peritonitis, puerperal peritonitis, pelvic cellulitis, etc.—the best results are obtained by the use of turpentine-stupes during the acute stage, and the application of blisters after the acuter symptoms have subsided. The prolonged contact of blisters with the abdominal wall of thin subjects has set up peritonitis by contiguity of structures. The author has observed instances of this kind, and analogous cases have been reported.

In chest-diseases-pleuritis, pneumonia, pericarditis, etc.—some form of counter-irritation is invariably employed, and is often greatly abused. At the onset of these maladies a large mustard-plaster to the chest, allowed merely to redden the skin, is an excellent expedient; during the progress of the inflammation the turpentine-stupe is generally the best application; to assist in the process of resolution and repair, the more permanent action of a blister will be serviceable. Much has been said about the "blistering-point" in pneumonia. The discussion is resolvable into this: during the inflammatory stage, blisters are harmful, because they stimulate the nervous and vascular systems, and are useful when the crisis occurs, to assist in the liquefaction and absorption of inflammation products. At the very inception of an acute thoracic disease a flying blister may render the same service as a mustard-plaster, but it possesses no advantage over the latter. A succession of "flying blisters" appears to be useful in hydrothorax, to promote absorption.

Counter-irritants are much abused in the treatment of phthisis at its various stages. The chest-pains which accompany this disease can usually be relieved by mustard and belladonna plasters. Intercurrent attacks of pleuritis and pneumonia may be treated by the milder forms of irritation. The pustulation of the chest with croton-oil or tartar-emetic ointment is rarely if ever justifiable, and deep blistering is always harmful.

In acute inflammation of the meninges, cerebral or spinal, blisters are often employed, but there is singularly little proof of their utility. When used, they should be confined to the mastoid processes or to the nape of the neck. Under no circumstances is it ever justifiable to shave and blister the scalp, as was formerly not infrequently done in various forms of cerebral disease. An aura proceeding from an extremity may be intercepted, and attacks of epilepsy averted, by encircling the limb with a strip of blistering-plaster. Various instances of the success of such a blister have been reported. Hysterical paralysis is most successfully treated by encircling the affected extremity with narrow blisters (Reynolds), and hysterical aphonia may sometimes be very quickly cured by a blister to the larynx. The curative effect of such an application is doubtless due to the moral impression of the counter-irritant. Blisters over the course of the affected nerve are of great service in neuritis. The good effect of the blisters is increased by treating the blistered surface with morphine. There can be no doubt of the curative value of blisters in neuralgiae. According to Anstie, it is not the mental impression produced by the pain of the blister, and not the withdrawal of serum from the focus of pain, which explain their efficacy, but they act "as true stimulants of nerve-function." The best point at which to apply the blister is "as close as may be to the intervertebral foramen from which the painful nerve issues." Flying blisters are to be preferred, and, as a rule, exudation of serum is not to be encouraged.

Lumbago, myalgia, and fugitive but recurring muscular pains, are sometimes relieved by the warming plasters given at the head of this article, or by frictions with ammonia-liniment, turpentine-liniment, etc.

Blisters                 rule, inadmissible in acute affections of the kid-

neys and bladder. A succession of blisters to the perinaeum is unquestionably serviceable in chronic prostatitis and in gleet.

Inflammatory affections of the eye and ear are, as a rule, benefited by the application of blisters in the neighborhood of these organs.

The application of blisters is an effective method of treating acute rheumatism. According to the plan of Davies and Dechilly, the affected joints are enveloped in blisters, which are allowed to remain until thorough vesication is produced and serum is abundantly discharged. The author, who has had considerable experience in the treatment of rheumatism by this method, finds that a number of small blisters applied around the joint are as effective and less painful. The good effects of the blister-treatment are these: the pain and swelling-are abated, the danger of cardiac complication lessened, and the duration of the disease shortened. It is a singular fact that the urine becomes neutral or alkaline under the action of blisters. The curative effect of blisters is not, probably, to be ascribed to the withdrawal of acid serum from the affected joints, but rather to an influence exerted through the trophic nerves on the metamorphosis of tissue.

As general stimulants, rubefacients and vesicants are employed to arouse the vital processes in a condition of great depression or collapse from any cause, e. g., cholera, pernicious malarial fever, uraemia, narcotic poisoning, etc.