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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    poning the nose retains its purity if previously saturated in a solution of bone acid, ten grains to the ounce of water. Z' Union Medicale, Jan. loth, 1891, contains the following prescription : Powdered boric acid, drachm one-half, combined with an equal quantity of salicylate of sodium to which one grain of cocaine is added: to be used as a snuff in Hay Fever. In the pharynx boric acid lotions may be used in the proportion of eight grains to the ounce of water. Or the powder, either pure or diluted, can be thrown into the naso-pharynx. J. C. Mulhall {^Trans. Am. Laryn. Asin, 1889) recommends that boric acid (as much as can be taken up by the liquid = 16 grains to the ounce represents, at ordinary temperature, a saturated solution) be added to Baudry's solution of carbolic acid and compound solution of iodine in the local treatment of Diphtheria. According to Da Costa (''Potter's Therapeutics ) boric acid holds second place only to thymol in the treatment of this disease. S. Johnson, of Baltimore, strongly recommends boric acid in five per cent, solution as a gargle for acute pharyngitis. Pastilles of boric acid are prepared by adding two grains to each mass of glycero-gelatin. Glycero-gelatin is a ten per cent, solution of gelatin in glycerin, which solidifies on cooling. Boric acid, two grains; glycerin, two minims, added to glycero-gelatin, one scruple, is recommended by Whistler for Aphthous Affections of the mouth and throat. Diseases of the Eye.—Boric acid has been extensively used in ophthalmic surgery as an antiseptic, and at one time was considered an efficient germicide. The latter claim has been generally abandoned. Sattler, in a series of bacteriological experiments with the various washes used by ophthalmic surgeons as antiseptics, proved boric acid to be en- tirely destitute of germicidal properties {Annales d' Oculistique, t. 91, p. 165.) It is still classed among the antiseptics, though its exact position is perhaps not yet defined, and it is at least a valuable aseptic application whose unirritating character especially recommends it in operations upon the eye. During Extraction of Cataract and other operations on the eyeball, the conjunctival sac may be freely and frequently douched with a warm saturated solution (about one part to thirty). Boric acid is much used in the treatment of Conjunctivitis, either alone or in combination with borax, alum, sulphate of zinc, or cocaine. Finely powdered, it is sometimes dusted on the inner surface of the eyelid in Trachoma. Borated lint is made by dipping lint into a saturated solution of boric acid. It is not a good application for the eye, as it becomes stiff and starchy in drying.