children, of hysterical and, especially, of parturient women; to these it may prove, by interfering with sleep and provoking restlessness, a very serious matter. Prickly heat is also a common though indirect cause of boils; for the breaches of surface, following on the scratching it induces, afford many opportunities for the invasion of the micro-organisms of furuncular disease.
Prickly heat consists of a miliary-like eruption, generally most profuse on those parts of the body, as around the waist, which are closely covered with clothing; but it also occurs on the backs of the hands, arms, legs, forehead, occasionally on the face, the scalp, in fact on any part of the surface of the body except the palms and soles. The minute, shining, glass-like vesicles, and the numerous, closely set and slightly inflamed papules, give the skin the feeling as if thickly sprinkled with grains of sand. The eruption may keep out for months on end, becoming better or worse according to circumstances. The pricking and itching are often exceedingly distressing. Anything leading to perspiration immediately provokes an out-burst of this almost intolerable itching— nothing more certainly than a cup of hot tea or a plate of hot soup. Long drinks, exposure to the hot sun, close rooms, warm clothing, all aggravate the distress. Sometimes the little vesicles may pustulate, doubtless from micrococcus infection. So soon as the weather becomes cool the eruption and the irritation quickly subside.
Treatment.— Manifestly the most important thing is the avoidance of all causes of perspiration —particularly the copious consumption of fluids, especially hot fluids— moderation in exercise, avoiding sea bathing, close rooms, warm clothing, and so forth. Soap should not be used in the bath. The sleeping-mattress and pillow should be covered with a finely woven grass mat, and the bed provided with what is known in the East as a " Dutch-wife "— that is, a hollow cylinder, 4 ft. by 8 or 10 in., of open rattan' work, over which the arms and legs can be thrown, and unnecessary apposition of sweating surfaces so
