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.

    250/554 (page 238)
    Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat.-In the form of an ointment, in the strength of twenty grains to the ounce, this agent is valu able in the last stage of Erysipelas of the auricle. A weaker preparation —VIZ., two grains to the ounce—is used by Sexton in Chronic Eczema of the auricle. In the proportion of one part to twenty, sulphate of iron may be used as a powder in the treatment of Chronic Coryza and Oz^NA. In the strength of one-eighth of a grain to two grains to the ounce it is used as a spray to the larynx in Chronic Laryngitis accompanied by hypersecretion. Much more powerful solutions are named—as, for example, a half drachm to a drachm to the ounce—but their effects should be carefully observed, and no indications are available for such uses. FLUORESCEIN. Resorcin-phtalein. Fluorescein is one of the numerous coal-tar compounds. It is prepared by heating to 200° C. for a few minutes, equal weights of resorcin and phthalic anhydride, and adding, the product to water. The resulting solution has an intense yellowish-green fluorescence. Fluorescein occurs in dark brown crystals, which forms with ammonia a red solution with a green fluorescence. It is not very soluble in water or alcohol. Diseases of the Eye.—The use of fluorescein has recently been intro- duced as a guide to the application of the actual cautery in Sloughing Keratitis. It marks out the precise area requiring cauterization, by giving a greenish tint to the portions of the cornea deprived of epithe- lium. The finest divisions radiating from the ulcer into the clear cornea are by means of fluorescein exhibited to the naked eye with a distinctness formerly to be attained only by means of a lens or corneal microscope. Thus the lateral spreading, and also the depth of the ulcer, are clearly shown, the green tint of the floor of the ulcer standing out sharply against the yellow pus on the posterior layers of the cornea and in the anterior chamber. (^Oph. Review, August, 1891, p. 240.) Two per cent, of fluorescein can be dissolved in a three and a half pe cent, solution of carbonate of soda. FRAXINUS. Ash. Many species of Fraxinus have been used. Fraxinus excelsior and Fraxin aniericana, which are respectively the systemic names for the European and the Ameri can ash, aK the principal medicinal forms. The bitter principle, fraxin or paviin,' has been extracted from the European varieties. The leaves have been used as antidot to snake bite. An unofficial ointment of fraxinus is recommended by Michel (Co logne) as an embrocation to the Ulcers left after cautery treatment 0 the pharynx.