5553. Treatment of Boils

5553. Treatment of Boils. When these appear, suppuration should be promoted by poultices of bread and linseed meal, to which a little glycerine or fat or oil may be added, to prevent their getting hard. When poultices are inconvenient, exposure to the vapor of hot water, or the application of stimulating plasters, may be adopted instead. When sufficiently ripe, the boil should be opened with a lancet, the matter evacuated, and the wound dressed with a little simple ointment spread on a piece of clean lint or linen. The diet may be full and liberal until the maturation of the tumor and the discharge of the matter, when it should be lessened, and tho bowels opened by some saline purgatives, as salts or cream of tartar. When there is a disposition in the constitution to the formation of boils, the bowels should be kept regular, and tonics, as bark or steel, taken, with the frequent use of sea-bathing, if possible.

5554. Carbuncle

5554.     Carbuncle. A carbuncle is a species of boil, but larger, and much more painful. It shows debility in the constitution. Carbuncles are very dangerous, and medical advice should at once be obtained.

5555. Astringents

5555.     Astringents. Substances that constrict tho animal fibre, and coagulate albumen. When employed to check bleeding, they are called styptics. The principal vegetable astringents are catechu, kino, galls, and oak bark; the principal mineral astringents are sulphate of iron, nitrate of silver, chloride of zinc, sulphate of copper, acetate of lead, &.

5556. To Stop Bleeding

5556.    To Stop Bleeding. If a man is wounded so that blood flows, that flow is either regular or by jets or spirts. If it flows regularly, a vein has been wounded, and a string should be bound tightly around below the wounded part, that is, beyond it from the heart. If the blood comes out by leaps or jets, an artery has been severed, and the person may bleed to death in a few minutes; to pre4&4 vent which, apply the cord above the wound, that is, between the wound and the heart. In case a string or cord is not at hand, tie the two opposite corners of a handkerchief around the limb, put a stick between, and turn it round until the handkerchief is twisted sufficiently tight to stop the bleeding, and keep it so until a physician can be had. This appliance is called a tourniquet.

5557. To Stop the Bleeding from Leeches

5557.     To Stop the Bleeding from Leeches. Make a ball of cotton about the size of a pea; put this pellet of cotton or lint upon the wound; press it down firmly; keep up the pressure for a quarter of an hour. Remove the finger cautiously, taking care to let the pellet remain.

5558. Pancoast's Styptic

5558.    Pancoast's Styptic. Take carbonate of potash, 1 drachm; castile soap, 2 drachms; alcohol, 4 ounces. Mix. This styptic has been found preferable to the persulphate of iron in many of the minor cases of hemorrhage, inasmuch as it leaves the surface of the stump in a healthy condition, and does not produce the thick incrustation so often objectionable after the application of the iron.