WASH YOUR NECK WELL TO WARD OFF BOILS
Those frequent and unwelcome visitors—boils—always are due to skin infection. The greatest preventive is constant cleanliness of the skin, particularly of the back of the neck or other parts commonly affected.
In men the back of the neck is the part most commonly affected, usually because of the constant rubbing of the collar on the hair of the lower part of the back of the head.
May Be Serious Signal.—Certain diseases, such as diabetes, seem to predispose the person to infection with boils, and the constant recurrence of boils should be the signal for a visit to the doctor.
The person who succumbs readily to skin infections lacks bodily resistance. This resistance of the skin is associated with the presence in the blood of substances that will overcome bacteria.
The constantly recurring warning to keep the body in the best physical state by proper diet, proper cleaning and prompt attention to infections in the ear, nose and throat is here of the greatest importance.
When a boil occurs the parts around it are usually shaved, since the infection spreads from one hair follicle to another. All sorts of antiseptics may be applied and fail to control the boil unless the tissues of the body wall it off and cause it to “come to a head.” Heat aids this process by bringing a good supply of blood to the part affected.
Surgical Attention.—A boil should not be opened by some friend who happens to think himself a surgeon merely because he does not faint at the sight of blood. Improper opening or drainage of a boil may be exceedingly serious by spreading the infection to the body generally.
The surgeon will open the boil with proper precautions against extension of the infection and will see to it that the boil drains properly.
The germs that cause boils are small round organisms, commonly seen in clusters when stained and studied with a microscope. Some physicians build up the resistance of the chronic sufferer from boils by preparing a vaccine from the patient’s own bacteria.