Hunterian lectures : on some of the injuries and diseases of the neck and head, the genito-urinary organs, and the rectum, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, June, 1885 / by Edward Lund.

  • Lund, Edward.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hunterian lectures : on some of the injuries and diseases of the neck and head, the genito-urinary organs, and the rectum, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England, June, 1885 / by Edward Lund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    suppuration instead of averting it. In children it is a good plan to apply the plaister only at night, removing it in the morning, and not to continue its use if irritation of the skin is produced. It should be diluted by the addition of one-third or one-fourth of cmp. saponis. It is often difficult to determine when and how to open abscesses which form around the inflamed glands of the neck in delicate subjects of the strumous constitution. I always delay the incision until I am satisfied not only that fluid exists, but that it is at least two-thirds in bulk or quantity of the diseased mass. If done earlier than this, the incision will cause only a slight diminution of the swelling, and the wound thus produced may excite a fresh course of inflammatory action. As to the mode of puncture, little, in my opinion, is gained by aspiration, even if only on so small a scale as that of puncture by the hypodermic syringe needle, and the removal of the liquid portion of the pus. I always use a very small lancet, with cutting edges, as represented in Plate I., Fig. A. This serves the purpose of an exploring needle, to ascertain if there is really fluid within the swelling ready for evacuation ; and then, by the same instrument, we can enlarge the incision along the lines of the platysma fibres to any extent. So small an incision as this would be quickly closed by adhesive inflammation, unless steps were taken to prevent it. With this object, by means of the flat-ended probe. Fig. C, I pass into the cavity from which the pus has escaped, a small coil of thin silk ribbon, Plate I., Fig. B, moistened with a lotion of nitrate of lead and weak carbolic acid, and allow a part of the ribbon to project beyond the incision, placing over all, the same lotion, with lint and oil-silk. If in a few days subsidence of the swelling does not result, I try to hasten the absorption of the lymph with which the part is infiltrated by having each ribbon-tent moistened with