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To Give a Foot-Bath in Bed

Physicians agree that a hot foot-bath is one of the most efficacious means of restoring warmth and circulation to the extremities in certain conditions of disease, but probably not one doctor in a thousand knows that a hot foot-bath can be easily and conveniently given in bed. Patients who are so weak they can scarcely sit are consequently assisted out of bed in order to have a foot-bath administered, and the greatest care must be taken to avoid drafts and the taking of cold. To give a foot- * A "foot-ton" of energy means so much energy as suffices to raise one ton one foot, a "foot-- pound so much as will lift one pound one foot. " bath in bed, first lay a large bath-towel smoothly in the bed at about the place where the knees of the patient come; then, having prepared the bath of the right temperature slide the foot-tub in beneath the covers, letting it rest upon the towel you have already arranged. At the same time, the patient, lying on his back, draws up his feet, bending his knees so that the feet will rest in the tub placed about where the knees were. Another towel can now be placed over the top of the tub, to prevent the steam dampening the sheets. When the nurse removes the tub, the patient's feet rest upon the towel. The feet are wiped dry, the towel removed, and not a drop of water need be spilled upon the sheets. The whole thing is so simple that you only wonder that you had never thought of it before.