The family doctor : a dictionary of domestic medicine and surgery; especially adapted for family use.
- Date:
- [between 1890 and 1899?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The family doctor : a dictionary of domestic medicine and surgery; especially adapted for family use. Source: Wellcome Collection.
14/776 (page 6)
![symptoms, which must he relieved by means of cooling aperients. Fomentation with water as hot as it can be borne, and hot bread or linseed poultices, should be resorted to in the first stages of an ^ acute abscess: strong drawing and irri- tating applications are often made use of, but this only increases the anguish v/ithout doing good: indeed it is both cruel and hurtful. The poultices should be frequently changed in order to keep up the requisite degree of warmth; they should be carefully adjusted so as not to press unduly upon the tenderest part, and when the pain is very severe, poppy heads shtaild be boiled in the water with which they are mixed, and this poppy decoction should also be be used for the fomentations. If, as is often the case, the abscess should be in the hand or lower part of the arm, that limb should be sup- ported by a sling made of a silk handkerchief, or some other soft material, so as to keep it from hanging down : adjust it so as to have the upper part of the arm as nearly perpen- dicular as may be, and the bend of the elbow at right angles with it. To keep the system cool and allay the fever which generally more or less attends active inflammation, the patient should take, every other night or so, an aperient pill, composed of Com- pound Extract of Colocynth, 4 grains; Calo- mel, 1 grain; and two or three times a-day, a tablespoonful of the followmg mixture:— Sulphate of Magnesia, | an ounce; Car- bonate of Magnesia, 1 drachm; Wine of Tartarized Antimony, 2 gi'ains; Camphor Mixture, 6 ounces : should this mixture cause griping in tlie bowels, add thirty drops of Essence of Peppermint; if it acts too violently, reduce the quantity of Sul- phate of Magnesia to one-half, and take a pill every third night only. When the an- guish prevents rest at night, this draught may be taken at bed-time — Acetate of Iklorphine, | of a grain ; Liquor of Acetate of Ammonia, 1 drachm ; Camphor Mixture, 7 drachms. After the discharge of purulent matter has ceased, the poultices may be discon- tinued, and moist rags kept applied for some days, after which the edges of the wound may be drawn together by strips of adhesive plaister, over which it is best to place a dressing of Tuimer’s Cerate or Spermaceti Ointment. If the wound is deep and large, it may be some weeks be- fore it fills by granulation, but otherwise the healing process proceeds rapidly, unless there is a want of vital energy in the system, or a diseased state of the part immediately result, which are very difficult to heal, fc! their treatment, see tUcers. A medical man will generally open an abscess, when it is sufficiently ripe, rather than wait the slower process of the breaking of the skin, and by doing this he often saves the patient much suffering and con- stitutional derangement; but no person unacquainted with the anatomy of the ])art should attempt this; to do it effectually the cut should be bold and deep, and exactly in the right place ; an unpractised hand will probably leave the largest reservoir of matter untouched, and so render another incision necessary, and effect no good pur- pose by the pain inflicted. AVhere the integument which covers the seat of the abscess is hard and thick, it is nearly always necesary to open it, and only the skilled practitioner can judge of the proper time for doing this ; therefore his aid should in all such cases be solicited ; as in those of deeply seated and internal abscesses, which generally assume a chronic character. With i-egard to the treatment of these no specific du'ections can be given, it must depend much upon the character of the tissues which they affect; as a general rule, the patient’s strength must be supported by a good and generous diet, and the admi- nistration of tonic and cordial medicines, taking care to keep the bowels moderately open. Stimulating plaisters made of Bur- gundy pitch. Gum Ammoniac with Mercury or Galbanum, are applied with advantage to the abdomen, or other seat of the affection, as are poultices of oatmeal with vinegar, or yeast, or water impregnated with salt. For abscesses in the neck, Astley Cooper recommends incision with a sharp knife, pressing the matter well out so as to excite adhesive inflammation, and dressing the wound with bread poultices moistened first with Sulphate of Zinc in solution, and after- wards with Spirits of Wine,giving good light nourishment, and carefully regulating the bowels. For the relief of the hectic fever, night sweats, and other constitutional distur- bances, caused by both acute and chronic abscesses, but more especially the latter, preparations of bark or iron, mineral acids, or cod-liver oil may be given during the period of copious discharge ; and especially immediately after it, when the powers of nature are most sorely taxed to supply the waste, and reconstruct the destroyed tissues, is nouidshing food and strengthening medi- cine required. Internal abscesses have been variously](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28124844_0014.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
