5504. Detergents

5504.    Detergents. Deterge means to cleanse. Detergents remove unwholesome matters adhering to and obstructing the vessels; usually applied to foul ulcers, etc., as tincture of myrrh, honey, alum, water, turpentine, etc..

5505. Treatment of Ulcers

5505.    Treatment of Ulcers. An ulcer is an injury done to the flesh, from which issues matter, or some kind of discharge, with more or less pain and inflammation. The common ulcer should be kept clean and cool, and protected from the atmosphere, especially in frosty or cold weather. It should be washed now and then with warm soap-water. Put upon it a little lint, wet occasionally with salt and water, and put over it the black salve. (See No. 4971 (Black, or Healing: Salve).) Perhaps the best dressing is the saturnine cerate. (See No. 4968 (Saturnine Cerate).) Poultices made of the oak bark or sumach bark may be used alternately.

5506. Treatment of Severe Ulcers

5506.     Treatment of Severe Ulcers. Sometimes ulcers are very irritable, tender, and painful, and discharge a thin acrid fluid. They should be steamed every night with a bitter decoction, and occasionally washed with an infusion of chamomile flowers, or a strong decoction of wild cherry bark, with a little spirit. Apply a poultice of slippery elm, mixed with a strong decoction of poplar bark, and a trifle of salt. Repeat as required. If the ulcer or ulcers are indolent, steam as before, and apply the cancer plaster (see No. 5047 (Cancer Plaster),) with only a trifle of the white vitriol mixed with it; or, sprinkle the ulcer with powdered blood-root. Sometimes ulcers become very much inflamed, and assume a livid color; they are covered with small vesicles or blisters, as in mortification. "Wash the ulcer with tincture of myrrh, and apply a poultice made of charcoal, yeast, slippery elm, ginger, and a minute portion of tincture of cayenne. Bear it as long as possible. Then apply the saturnine cerate. (See No. 4968 (Saturnine Cerate).)

5507. Beach's Remedy for Ulcers

5507. Beach's Remedy for Ulcers. The following is recommended by Dr. Beach: Take sweet clover tops and stalks, burdock leaves, and parsley, a handful of each; get the strength out by boiling; strain, and add 1 pound of resin and 1/4 pound of fresh butter; simmer until of a proper consistence. A cold water cloth constantly applied is a good remedy. Put a little cerate on the ulcer previously. Attend to the general health by cleansing the stomach and bowels, and then giving tonics.

5508. To Disinfect and Deodorize Foul Ulcers

5508. To Disinfect and Deodorize Foul Ulcers. Permanganate of potassa <disinfects rapidly the most fetid ulcers, in the proportion of 2 scruples of the salt to 8 ounces of water as a lotion or injection. The most favorable method is to cover the wound with lint soaked with that substance, and to place above this a layer of raw cotton, the latter having the property of filtering the air, and to retain the germs which determine putrid fermentation. In cancers of the womb it is necessary to repeat the injections several times a day,