On solutions of gun-cotton, gutta percha, and caoutchouc, as dressings for wounds, etc : read before the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society / by J.Y. Simpson, M.D.

  • James Young Simpson
Date:
[1848], [©1848]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On solutions of gun-cotton, gutta percha, and caoutchouc, as dressings for wounds, etc : read before the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Society / by J.Y. Simpson, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    practitioners know well the agony that some mothers undergo, in consequence of this apparently slight disease ; the ulcer or fis- sure being renewed and torn open with each application of the child. In two such cases I united the edges of the fissures, and covered them over with the solution of gun- cotton, making the layer pretty strong. It acted successfully, by maintaining the edges 80 firmly together that they were not again re-opened by the infant: the gun-cotton dressing was not, like other dressings, afi^ected by the moisture of the child's mouth ; and as a dressing, and at the same by securing rest to the part, it allowed com- plete adhesion and cicatrization speedily to take place. I have applied it also repeatedly to ulcers of the cervix uteri and over various cutaneous eruptions. Its application relieves at once the smarting of slight burns. In a case in which Professor Miller lately removed a large portion of necrosed bone from the lower jaw, I dressed the lips of the incision with the gun-cotton solution, and it held them for some days subsequently accurately in contact till adhesion took place. In two minor amputations (one of the finger and the other of the toe), by the same gentleman, it was applied, but required to be removed in a day or two, in conse- quence of its retaining the discharges. I have made a number of experiments, with solu- tions in different menstrua, of various other substances besides gun-cotton, especially viscine, dextrine, caoutchouc, and gutta- percha. Gutta-percha readily, I find, dissolves in chloroform. When a thin layer of this solution is spread upon the skin or any other surface, the chloroform rapidly evapo- rates, and leaves a film or web of gutta- percha, possessing all the tenacity and other properties of that substance. A layer of it, of the thickness of good writing-paper, has perhaps as much strength and tenacity as to hold the edges of a wound together, with all the required firmness and strength of sutures. When a film of it is placed upon the skin, and is allowed to dry thoroughly for afew minutes, the subsequent attempt to separate it is like peeling and tearing off the epidermis after erysipelas, &c. It then forms, as it were, at once a kind of artificial tissue, epidermis, or skin, which adheres strongly for a time. There is one disadvantage pertaining to it. In the course of a day or two it generally dries and crisps up, like court plaster, at its edges. If we could either increase its ad- hesiveness, or destroy its tendency to dry and crisp, we should render it more useful. I have seen the addition of a little caout- chouc apparently correct it in these respects. The depobit or plaster left by the solu- tion of gutta-percha is far more equable, smooth, and skin-like, than that left by the solution of gun-cotton. A solution of caoutchouc in bisulphuret of carbon, ether, or chloroform, leaves a very thin, but perhaps less regular web, and one which stretches too readily for most practical purposes. One great defit in this class of dressings is the want of a menstruum sufficiently powerful, and, at the same time, not stimu- lating like ether or chloroform. This ob- jection may, perhaps, in practice be got over, by applying an unstimulating solution of isinglass or the like to the raw surface, before applying the stimulating solution of the gun-cotton or gutta-percha. Or the first layer of gun-cotton or gutta-percha may be made very thin, so as to evaporate almost instantaneously, and then afterwards a series of superincumbent layers may be added till the web is of the required strength. Other better substances for solution may, perhaps, be found. But no material has a chance of succeeding, unless it be insolu- ble in water after it is consolidated, 'and unless it be sufficiently strong in its texture, and possesses powerfully adhesive properties. [Dr. Simpson has forwarded to us the following addition to the report.] P.S. Since the preceding observations were published in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science for July last, various at- tempts have been made by Messrs. Duncan, Flockhart, &c., to improve the manufacture of collodion or gun-cotton solution. For some time past they have thrown aside other formulae, and use now only that of M. Mialhe (described in the present volume of the Medical Gazette, p. 517). They find this formula by far the most simple and certain that they have tried. The sulphuric acid employed should be the commercial kind; as, when it is too strong and concen- trated, it chars and blackens some of the cotton, making a dark instead of a transpa- rent solution. Edinburgh, Oct. 1st, 1848.