Edward Lawrence Keyes
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 22
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...washed to remove all mercury, and afterward dressed with some soothing ointment (diachylon, oxide of zinc, or vaseline) until the irritation subsides; this may require considerable time. A modified method of inunction, which is much more convenient than the process above described, but not so prompt generally or sure in its action, is to spread thickly, upon a broad band of hard, thick muslin, a patch of about the size of the hand, of mercurial ointment, or twenty-per-cent. oleate. A piece of oil-silk covers the outside of the bandage, and the latter is wrapped around the arm, forearm, thigh, leg, or waist, attached to the clothing so as to remain in place, and is left in position a week or more, if the skin will tolerate it. The patch must be raised daily and the integument inspected. Itching at the edge of the patch, or redness beneath it, means that the skin is beginning to get into trouble, and the bandage must be removed to another place, while the skin is washed and dusted with talcumpowder. The most efficient inunction method with which I am familiar is that employed at the Hot Springs of Arkansas. I resort to it always when, in grave conditions of late syphilis, I wish to produce a profound mercurial effect, or desire to touch the gums promptly. The patient, naked from the waist up, sits astride a chair, leaning the breast against the back of the chair. The ointment, squeezed from a five-gramme capsule, is smeared over the entire back. A strong attendant uses the flat of the entire hand in broad, vigorous sweeps in an oval manner, up and down and around the back, during a space of fully twenty minutes, until the blue ointment, passing through shades of green, grey, and greasy white, disappears into the skin. Then the patient puts...