A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging : for the use of house-surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners / by Christopher Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    175/454 (page 155)
    C'ujjpiny.—This operation requires <a good deal of nicety in its performance, and is by no means so easy as it would appear. If the ordinary glass cups are used, it will be necessary to exhaust tlie air by means of the flame of the spirit-torch, or, as preferred by some surgeons, by inserting pieces of paper or cotton- wool dipped in spirit, and then setting them on fire in the cup itself. Whichever method is employed, care must be taken not to heat the glass too much, or the patient's skin will be scorched. When the cups are fitted with a little exhausting-syringe, the operation, though more tedious, is more easily per- formed. Whether the cupping is to be ' dry ' or ' wet,' the surface of the body should be sponged with warm water prior to the operation, and the cups be placed in a basin of boiling water before being used. The torch being then held beneath the cup, so that the flame enters it without touching the glass, the air becomes rarefied, and the cup should be innnediately applied to the skin, and gently pressed on to it so that the surface may fit closely to its edges. When the skin has risen well within the cup, it may be detached by inti'oducing the nail beneath its edge, and the operation of dry cupping is completed. The scarificator used in wet cupping should be kept scrupulously clean, and its blades very sharp, and before commencing the operation they must be gradu- ated to suit the thickness of the patient's skin, which can be best ascei tainerl by pinching up a sma,]l piece between the finger and thumb. Care must be taken in the case of a fat patient not to set the blades too deeply, or they will cut througli the skin and let the little pellets of fat protrude, eftectually arresting the flow of blood. In using the scarificator, it must be pressed carefully against the skin, or it will slip and make very irregular incisions, and the freshly ex- hausted cup must be applied innnediately over the cuts. Each time the cup is removed, with its con- tained blood, the surface should be wiped with a