Surgical tracts, containing a treatise upon ulcers of the legs ; in which former methods of treatment are candidly examined, and compared with one more rational and safe; effected without rest and confinement : together with hints on a successful method of treating some scrophulous tumors; and the mammary-abscess, and sore nipples of lying-in women / by Michael Underwood, M.D.

  • Underwood, Michael, 1736-1820.
Date:
MDCCLXXXVIII [1788]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgical tracts, containing a treatise upon ulcers of the legs ; in which former methods of treatment are candidly examined, and compared with one more rational and safe; effected without rest and confinement : together with hints on a successful method of treating some scrophulous tumors; and the mammary-abscess, and sore nipples of lying-in women / by Michael Underwood, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    poor people, in whom it often becomes ftationary merely from their neceliitous lituation, which de- prives them of the bed means of relief; to which may be added, their not being in a capacity of com- plying with the miftaken notion of the neceffity of reft,* which has proved eventually the occafion of more * An anonymous writer, who lately fuggefted his thoughts on wlccrated legs, with a view to lead furgeons to inveftigate the fub- je6t, juftly claims from his candour a title to notice, efpecially from me, for the polite mention made of the plan I had recom- mended, which was then but juft publiflied. And it is with plea- fure I can aflure this gentleman, that the treatment of fore legs is row a matter taken up in different parts of the kingdom, and with a fuccefs that has ferved amply to confirm the praftife I had fug- gefted. Every frefli inftance has demonftrated the propriety of the idea I threw out, as to the occafion of the difficulty of the cure, and the means of removing it, as well as of the futility of at- tempting it upon the lenient plan, which, as this writer obferves, either fails in the firil inftance, or the fore often breaks out again. In farther confirmation of this fentiment, I would remind this candid inquirer, that much more powerful applications thanyelloiv bafilicon are required to bring ulcers into a good ftate, which once eSefted, drefling tbem with a mild digelVive will not keep them open, (as he has fuggelled, in caf^s where he apprehends they ought to be preferved as ifTues,) unlefs it be from its not being fufficiently adtive ; and not from its ftimulus. Let the pea be taken out of an ifllie, and the ulcer drefled with yellow bafilicon ; er a perpetual blifter be treated in like manner, and they will nei*^ ther of them be long kept open ; whereas, common blifters are fometimes difficult to be healed; and every practitioner muft have known them continue open for two or three months, in fpight of every attempt to the contrary, efpecially in teething children j though herej it is acknowledged, the evil is not local. This wri- ter's