Water Bed
a device that originated with Dr. Neil Arnott, one of Queen Victoria's physicians. It consists of a trough of the dimensions of a wide sofa or a bed, having six or seven inches depth of water in it, and over it a caouta caoutchouc covering on which clothes and pillows are laid as in a common bed. A more convenient and portable contrivance is the water mattress, consisting of a coutchouc or waterproof bag of the size of an ordinary mattress, which may be filled with water of any degree of temperature, or with air, as may be degive sired. The water bed is exceedingly useful in many diseases, but it is frequently a considerable time before the patient can become accustomed to its use, and some can never be reconciled to it.