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.

    194/554 (page 182)
    LOCAL THERAPEUTICS. conditions of the cornea may sometimes be questionable; no very severe stiffermg is occasioned. It has been successfully used in Serpent Ulcers Sloughing Keratitis, Corneal Abscesses with or without hypopyon' Infected Wounds, and obstinate cases of Pustular Keratitis. Slough' ing of the flaps after cataract extraction may sometimes be checked by prompt cauterization. It also affords the best prospect of success, in cases of Chronic Indolent Non-vascular Ulcers and Corneal Fistula. Applied to the apex of the cone in conical cornea, it has been claimed that it produces an ulcer whose cicatrization prevents further bulging. The anterior chamber should not be penetrated. The galvano-cautery is preferred by some surgeons, but has no great advantage over a properly-shaped instrument of steel or platinum wire, while it is handled with less ease and freedom than the latter and does not admit of the same precision and delicacy of touch. A probe or strabis- mus hook may be used in an emergency. The thermo-cautery of Pac- quelin has also been used, but is not well adapted to the purpose. The use of the actual cautery in the treatment of Ulcers of the cornea was first recommended by Martinache, of San Francisco, in 1873, but did not attain a recognized position in ophthalmic surgery until some years later. Though a number of authors have written strongly in its favor, it is not even yet so generally adopted as it should be. (Knapp, Trans. Am. Oph. Soc'y, 1885; Nieden, Archives of OphfhaL, Vol. xiii, p. 31.) CERA FLAVA. Yellow Wax. A peculiar concrete substance prepared by Apis mellifica. Yellow wax melts at 63° to 64° C. (145.4° to 147.2° F.). It is insoluble in water, soluble in thirty-five parts of ether, and in eleven parts of chloroform, in oil of turpentine, and in fixed and vola- tile oils, and in boiling alcohol. (U. S. P.) White wax is a constituent of Cerahcm Cetacei, Charta Cantharidis, and Unguentum Aqua Rosce, and yellow wax of many of the cerates, ointments, and plasters of the Pharmacopoeia. Wax bleached by exposure to moisture, air, and light, thus avoiding chemical bleaching, constitutes Cera Alba (White Wax, Yellow Wax, bleached. Wax is protectant; by its tenacious character it serves under a limited group of conditions as a haemostatic. General Surgery.—Wax is not used by itself to any extent as a local dressing in surgery, although it'is often incorporated with ointments in hot weather to give them a proper consistency. It is also frequently, though improperly, added to cocoa-butter in the preparation of suppositories with the effect of making the mass insoluble in proportion to the amount of wax added. Such suppositories are worse than useless, and when inserted in the rectum not only disappoint the physician by the failure of the drug which is incorporated with the suppository to act, but oftentimes induce