Pathology and treatment of ringworm / by George Thin.

  • Thin, George.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathology and treatment of ringworm / by George Thin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    69/96 page 65
    1£ Hydrargyri Oleatis gss. ad gi (Dr. Shoemaker's) Adipis Benzoati §v. M. Ft. imgt. Oleate of copper has- been recommended by Dr. Le Sieur Weir. It is used in the strength of 1 to 6 drams in an ounce of vaseline. As it sometimes causes a good deal of irritation it is best to begin with a weaker strength. I am not aware that the brilliant results claimed by Dr. Weir have been confirmed by subsequent observers, but there is no doubt that oleate of copper may take its place amongst the other irritants which may be suc- cessfully used in ringworm of the scalp. Dr. Shoemaker also recommends it, and deprecates the use of water to the affected parts while it is being used. Mr. Alder Smith states that he has been pleased with the results which he has obtained from it. Dr. Liveing1 reports that it was fair]y tried for twelve months in nearly all the patients who presented themselves in the out- patients' department in the Middlesex Hospital (over one hundred cases); and that the results did not come up to his expectations. The use of copper (for example, rubbing with a penny which had been soaking in vinegar) is an old-fashioned remedy. The following incident occurred in my practice. I was treating a boy very successfully with carbolic glycerine and an ointment of sulphur and carbonate of potassium. The number of diseased hairs at each fortnightly consultation was steadily diminishing, and I was well satisfied with the result. The parents were, however, very impatient to be able to send the boy back to school, and the nurse, at her own instance, expedited matters. She put half a pound of sulphate of copper in a pint of vinegar. After a few days she took the crust which had formed on the sulphate of copper and rubbed it firmly into the affected parts. The result was that the few remaining diseased hairs disappeared, but the treatment had produced rather a violent erythematous inflammation, an inflammation considerably more intense in degree than had been produced by my remedies. When I saw the boy I found the skin very red 1 Brit. Med. Journ. 1884. E
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