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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    of carbolic acid. For a minute it caused a slight burning, then the skin became quite numb, whitened, and shriveled j at this point he made an incision one-half an inch long without feeling the knife, the wound healing as usual. Three hours afterward he thrust, without pain, a needle into the skin j and next he applied a blister to the carbolized skin without causing pain or vesication. He found that in incising Whitlows this application greatly lessened the pain. A strong carbolized solution is an exceedingly good application to relieve the pain in superficial Burns, care being taken to guard against absorption, should the surface be of large extent. Hiiter has used in his clinics carbolic acid hypodermically in the treat- ment of Erysipelas (carbolic acid, one grain, distilled water, 80 minims). This solution is used in traumatic erysipelas; five or six injections of 16 minims each are made in the healthy skin at several points around the erysipelatous patch. They are repeated during the day, and the treat- ment is pursued until the fever subsides and there is an arrest of the erysipelatous inflammation. Carbolic acid topically applied is useful in Anthrax. It may be injected into the neighborhood of the pustule (two to three minims of a two per cent, solution), twice a day for two or three days, a compress soaked in a solution i to 20 being frequently applied. Some advise painting over the part with strong acid. Many attempts have been made to introduce carbolic acid as a sub- stitute for the tincture of iodine in the treatment for the radical cure of Hydrocele. It was a favorite injection with the late R. J. Levis, at the Pennsylvania Hospital, and has also been employed at the Massa- chusetts General Hospital. It may be used with advantage in very small hydroceles, employing from 20 minims to one-half ounce in glycer- in. It is less severe, but not nearly so reliable an injection as the tincture of iodine, recurrence after its employment being much more common. It should never be used if chronic orchitis or much thickening of the sac is suspected, or in old or enfeebled persons. In Neuralgia, relief may be obtained by painting the course of the painful nerve with a strong solution of carbolic acid. It has also been advised to inject hypodermically small quantities of the drug in close proximity to the seat of pain. In an obstinate case of Sciatica, Dr. Levis painted the course of the sciatic nerve with the pure acid, with the effect of producing great amelioration. Diseases of the Skin.—Carbolic acid is much employed in the treatment of diseases of the skin, chiefly as an antipruritic, in which it is surpassed by no other remedy with which we are acquainted. Bulkley (The Local Use of Tar, etc., in the Treatment of Skin Diseases.—^rc/i. 3