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.

    211/554 (page 199)
    This method may be employed in the removal of Small Neoplasms, Moles, Cicatrices, etc., covering an area of not more than three or four square inches. The ansesthesia is almost instantaneous, and is evidenced by the pallor of the overlying skin. After the removal of the growth, it is well not to check too quickly any capillary oozing. Diseases of the Skin.—Cocaine is employed in diseases of the skin for its anaesthetic effect alone. Under ordinary circumstances neither the crystallized hydrochloride of cocaine nor its solution will penetrate the epidermis. If, however, a strong solution of the drug is placed upon the unbroken skin and a current of electricity, from five to twenty cells of the ordinary constant-current battery, is passed, the anaesthetic influence of the cocaine appears to penetrate a short distance. This circumstance is taken advantage of in the removal of Superfluous Hairs. When the true skin or a mucous membrane is exposed to the influence of the cocaine, anaesthesia results, from the absorption of the drug. In Pruritus, particularly in Pruritus of the Vulva, a condition of hyperaesthesia is sometimes induced which is difficult to allay. Nervous crises result, when the influence on the general nervous system is so great as to produce an almost epileptiform attack. Under these circumstances a strong solution of cocaine, in even a small quantity of the finely powdered drug, applied to the clitoris will permit the employment of astringent washes or other preventive measures directed to the removal of the exciting cause. No fear need be entertained in these cases of any constitutional effects, unless the drug be frequently repeated and in considerable quantities. As an anaesthetic to prevent pain in the application of caustics, cocaine hydrochloride is of marked value. A strong solution applied to the sur- face of an Irritable Ulcer, or to an Epitheliomatous Ulcer, will dull the sensibility of the parts to such an extent that a strong caustic can be applied with little pr no suffering on the part of the patient. The anaes- thetic effect is transitory. A convenient formula for the use of oleate of cocaine in Pruritus Ani, etc., is the following: B. Cocain. oleat., gr. vj; lanolin, gvssj olei olivae, 3ss. M. Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat.—Applications of solutions of cocaine upon any portion of the mucous surface of the nose and throat are followed by diminished redness, pallor of the membranes owing to the constriction of the blood-vessels,* and also by a slight sense of numb- ness. The effect is in no sense diffusive. In the pharynx and larynx a * Cocaine sometimes does not constrict blood-vessels, as in CEdematous Chronic Inflammation, and in some forms of Membranous Rhinitis.—F. H. Potter {Journal Laryngology, March, 1889).