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.

    59/554 (page 47)
    lactic acid, 15 to 30 per cent., with good results in Chronic Syphilitic Conditions of the Middle Ear. It corrects odor and diminishes the discharge. C. Astier {^Rev. Gen. Clinique et de Therap., February 7, 1899) recommends lactic acid for Hypertrophy of the Nasal Mucous Membrane. The author employs two parts of the acid to one of water. Jellinek (^Centralblatt f. Laryngologie, 1886) finds the acid available for small, recent, Shallow Ulcers and Soft Infiltrations, also in Granular Pharyngitis, Atrophic and Hypertrophic Catarrh. . Rafin uses an eighty per cent, solution of lactic acid in the local treatment of Lupus in the nasal passage. Cartaz recommends it in the treatment of Nasal Tuberculosis. In Nasal Diphtheria a spray of a drachm of the acid to the ounce of water is spoken of highly by M. Mackenzie. In the more usual pharyngeal form of this disease a weaker preparation will suffice, viz., a strength of twenty minims to the ounce of water. If the child does not permit spraying, the preparation may be used as a pigment. Reports vary as to the value of lactic acid in Tuberculous Ulceration of the tongue. Poncet {Lyons Medical, January, 1887) found it to be painful, while it proved to be futile, in his attempts to heal the ulcer. On the other hand, Rafin {Ibid., July 8, 1888) extols its use. Applications made twice daily for six weeks resulted in a cure. A solution of a strength of eighty per cent, was employed. H. Krause {Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, 1885, 462) called attention to this drug as a local remedy for Laryngeal Phthisis. He was led to make a trial from its known value in the treatment of Lupus. It is now by most observers accepted as one of the best of topical applications in the condition named. J. Sedziak {Journal of Laryngology and Rhinology, 1889, 232) claims in 73.3 per cent, more or less favorable effects, follow its use. The cases in which failure was noted were those which had been under observation but a short time, or in which there had been ex- tensive complications prohibiting the free use of the acid. Even in the most unfavorable circumstances he states that the applications facilitate deglutition. The acid is used in strengths varying from ten to one hundred per cent. It is well to begin with a weak solution and gradually increase its strength, since it is known that in some cases irrita- tions of a high grade may follow if a sound mucous membrane be involved in an application. The solution is usually applied by the brush. A sen- sation of burning may ensue which may have a duration of several hours ; this in a measure is assuaged by the subsequent applications of cocaine, of ten or fifteen or twenty per cent. If much hardened infiltration be pres- ent, it is well to precede the application by scarification or curetting. On soft infiltration lactic acid acts more quickly than on the hard, and with especial rapidity upon ulcerated surfaces; it appears to be thus applicable in Ulcers which exist on the vocal cords. Dysphagia is almost