A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    parts to one), which should be painted \vitli a wniall brush all over the injured surface; or the gutta-percha collodion may be used pvire. When vesicles have been ])roduced, they should be snipped with a sharp pair of scissors, the serum being gently evacuated with a piece of cotton wool, and the collodion mixture applied over them. This mixture may be conveniently kept ready made in a well-stoppered (or better, a capped) bottle, in the surgery, and its application, although paintul for the moment, Avill be found to give immediate relief to the smart of the injury. 'No other dressing should be put over the collodion, which, should be repeated once or twice as it dries. If the injury is quite superficial, the skin will probably cica- trize before the collodion scab drops olF; but if too severe for that, healthy granulations will spring up, which are best treated with water dressings.* Cotton wool (or what is better and cheaper, the common white cotton wadding, split open) is a favorite and useful application both for burns and scalds. It should be carefully wrapped around the injured part, and main- tained in position by bandages. It certainly soothes the pain rapidly, but has the disadvantage of sticking to the raw surface, from which it should be allowed to separate by suppiu-ation, assisted by a poultice, if ne- cessary. Carron oil (equal parts of lime-water and linseed- oil) is an exceedingly nasty application, though a favorite with many surgeons. Lint soaked in it is placed over the burnt pai-t, and in badly charred cases it is perhaps as good an application as any, thougli its offensive odour is a great drawback. In burns of the face a mask of lint dipped in carron oil is sometimes iised; but the collodion and oil is an equally efficacious application, and much pleasauter for the patient. At the London Hospital, where the cases of biu'ns are very numerous, the imiversal treatment is the ap- * W. P. Swain,' British Med. Journal,' December 27, 1857.