The Counter-Irritant VII.

THE COUNTER-IRRITANT.

The introduction of some counter-irritant into our public school curriculum is now thought to be inevitable.

Danger is often the best counter-irritant in cases of mental suffering; he found a solace in careless exposure of his life, and learned to endure the trials of each day better by dwelling in imagination on the possibility that it might be the last for him and the home that was his.

" "Shall we go back and try a counter-irritant?" asked the young man of his companion.

I prepare to apply a counter-irritant: he sees it with the corner of his eye, and both ears turn back like a tuning-fork.

But the Purbhoo is near him, irritatingly near him, and he has proved in practice to be just the sort of homoeopathic remedy we require, the counter-irritant, the outward blister by wise application of which we can keep down the internal inflammation.

They are prickly and, therefore, perfect as a counter-irritant under very cold conditions, but far too irritating for ordinary wear.

He may be regarded roughly as the royal poultice who brought matters to a head in England, and who, by means of his treachery, cowardice, and phenomenal villany, acted as a counter-irritant upon the malarial surface of the body politic.

The second indication in the treatment is that of applying a counter-irritant as near to the diseased parts as possible.

Instead of blistering the coronet (or in conjunction with that treatment), the counter-irritant may be applied by passing a seton through the plantar cushion or fibro-fatty frog.

Counter-irritant.

Counter-irritant.

But one has seen a man strike himself a heavy blow on receiving news of a loss not by death, and I venture to fancy that cuttings and gashings at funerals are merely a more violent form of appeal to a counter-irritant of grief, and, again, a token of recklessness caused by a sorrow which makes void the world.