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.

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    been made use of for blistering. It is said to be as efficacious for this purpose as is cantharis, for which it may be substituted in treating persons who object to cantharis on account of the pain it produces. In using chloral for a blister, the drug should be powdered and a layer of it spread on adhesive plaster, taking care to leave a wide margin. The chloral is then warmed over a gas-jet, and as soon as it melts it should be applied to the previously anointed skin. This mode of blistering causes no unpleasant sensations, owing to the ansesthetic properties of chloral. The application should not be permitted to remain on longer than fifteen minutes. Its vesicating properties probably depend on the break- ing up of the chloral by the alkalinity of the skin and its secretions into chloroform and formic acid. All things considered, the use of chloral as a vesicant is not to be commended. If left too long in contact with the skin it may cause sloughs, the risk of which is increased by the freedom from pain and consequent absence of warning to the patient. Marc See {Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc., April 25, 1891) has made use of chloral hydrate in the treatment of 200 cases of Hydrocele. He employs a ten per cent, solution, one ounce of this being thrown slowly into the sac. In two or three days a large effusion occurs, which is soon absorbed. Cregny (^Gaz. de Gynecol, May i, 1888) has secured good results by the following treatment for Anal Fissure : The lower bowel is emptied and a pledget of lint soaked in a twenty per cent, solution of chloral is then lodged in the fissure. This remains until it is expelled by the movement of the bowels, when a second application is made. Four grains to the ounce forms a solution used by Mitropolsky in Cracked Nipples. The antiseptic properties of chloral have long been recognized. Con- sequently it is used as a wash for Foul Ulcers, Burns, Cancers, and also as a vaginal douche in Cancer of the Uterus. In strength of five to ten grains to the fluid ounce it forms an admirable antiseptic and sedative dressing for wounds, being applied on lint soaked in the solution and covered with oiled silk or waxed paper. Injections of a one per cent, solution of chloral have been used with success in treating Gonorrhoea. In nearly all cases pain and erections are controlled in a few days. It will, however, occasionally fail. Ore has proposed intravenous injections of chloral as a substitute for ether and chloroform anaesthesia in surgery and as a means of com- bating Tetanus. This plan has been carried out by himself and others with asserted good results; but from the danger attending the use of chloral in this way, and from the fact that inhalations of ether and chloroform are both safer of application, it has never come into general use.