A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    117/554 (page 105)
    ARGENTI NITRAS. I^S five minutes after its infliction, had been thoroughly cauterized with nitrate of silver. Nitrate of silver is used in a variety of ways on cutaneous surfaces. Higginbottom strongly recommends its local application in Erysipelas. He states that no agent is so safe or efficacious. Before applying it, the parts should be thoroughly cleansed with soap and water, then with simple water, and afterward dried. Then a solution of twenty grains to the ounce should be painted over the parts two or three times, and be- yond it on the healthy skin to the extent of two or three inches. It is important that the skin be thoroughly clean, as any particle of soap left will decompose the solution. In twelve hours it will be seen whether the solution has been well applied. If any of the inflamed surfaces be found unaflected,. it must be reapplied. Stronger solutions (i6o grains to the ounce) may be painted over the aflected parts and a little beyond it, or a line drawn around them a little outside the borders, with the solid stick. The alteration produced in the tissues underneath this line is said to prevent the extension of the inflammation beyond the limit thus formed (Brunton loc. ciL, p. 576). Stiikovenkoff experimented upon forty-two patients with the nitrate of silver treatment and concluded that it short- ened the duration of the disease one-half. Polotebnow repeated these experiments on sixty more cases but with unfavorable results. The nitrate of silver, he asserts, can neither stop the erysipelatous process in the skin, reduce the fever, prevent renal complications nor shorten the period of albuminuria. Our own impression is that this remedy is of limited value. As a prophylactic in Onychia and Felon, nitrate of silver, if applied early by painting over the finger several times a solution of twenty to thirty grains to the ounce, is often used; but we have found it a less satisfactory remedy than is tincture of iodine. Bed-Sores may be prevented by painting the threatened but unbroken skin, as soon as it becomes red, with a solution of nitrate of silver ten grains to the ounce. (See Emplastrum Flujubt). Mason has followed with much success the plan of applying a sharp pointed stick of nitrate of silver to the base or under surface of the granu- lations of Ingrowing Toe-nail ; after doing this he carefully inserts a small piece of lint soaked in black wash, and envelops the entire toe in a water dressing. Agnew advises the application of a fifty per cent, crayon of nitrate of silver to the ulcer at the bottom of an obstinate Fissured Nipple; the part should be thoroughly cleansed, care being taken to carry the agent into every crevice, and afterward to wash the parts with a little milk or water, when a few dressings of oxide of zinc ointment will usually complete the cure. In Ranula in children it is sometimes difficult to dissect out the sac.