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.

    87/554 (page 75)
    September 24, 1887, also Trans. Am. Laryng. Assn., 1887), employs agaric in plugging the nose in Epistaxis. ALCOHOL. «A liquid composed of 91 per cent, by weight (94 per cent, by volume) of ethyl alcohol (C,H,HO; 46), and 9 per cent, by weight (6 per cent, by volume of water. Specific gravity 0.820 at 15.6° C. (60 F.) and 0.812 at 25° C. (77° F.). (U. S P.) Alcohol is miscible in all proportions with water, glycerin, and ether; dissolves the essential oils freely, but dissolves fixed oil very sparingly indeed. Castor oil is about the only fixed oil freely soluble in it, and this only when the alcohol is of full strength. It dissolves also iodine, and many balsams and resins. Absolute alcohol forms ethylates with potassium, sodium, and lithium. All deliquescent salts, except carbonate of potas- sium, are dissolved by it, as are also, freely, many of the chlorides. The Alcohol Dilutum of the U. S. P. and the Spiritus Tenuior of the Ph. Br. are mixtures of alcohol and water, containing—the first 55 per cent, of water by weight, and the latter 51 per cent. Absolute alcohol is pure anhydrous ethylic alcohol. Alcohol is incompatible with chromic acid and with permanganate of potassium. When alcohol is kept in prolonged contact with the skin, evaporation being prevented, a sense of heat and superficial inflammation is produced. Alcohol coagulates albumin and hardens animal tissues by abstraction of water, and, hence, is of value, at times, in forming a thin, protective, air- excluding layer, which promotes healing. General Surgery.—The stimulating action of alcohol upon the capil- laries when applied locally causes them to contract without marked coagu- lation or clotting of the blood, and has caused alcohol to be regarded as one of the most desirable of haemostatics, as it always leaves the wound to which it has been applied clean and free from clots or anything which will prevent primary union. Alcohol, diluted with equal parts of a i to 1000 solution of corrosive sublimate, is of great service in controlling capillary oozing after amputations. In this way two objects are accom- plished—the checking of all oozing and the thorough disinfection of the wound. Alcohol, however, is in itself aseptic, since it is destructive to most life forms. In cases demanding immediate action it is often the only agent that is accessible. At one time it was with Ashhurst a favorite dressing for amputations, the stump being thoroughly enveloped with lint, saturated with equal parts of alcohol and water. We have employed a similar dressing, with the addition of a small quantity of corrosive sublimate (i to 2000) for granulating surfaces in which a high stage of inflammation has been present. It seems especially serviceable in cases which have been long poulticed, as is frequently seen in neglected Felon. Equal parts of alcohol and water form a convenient evaporating lotion. Alcohol is also a valuable remedy in the treatment of Contusions about the face, with much ecchymosis. For the removal of the latter Agnew advises the use of