Micro-organism of diphtheria with experimental results in animals / by Albert Wilson.

  • Wilson, Albert, 1854-1928.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Micro-organism of diphtheria with experimental results in animals / by Albert Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/20 (page 17)
    per cent, of sulphurous acid (?), or 1 to 3000 of perchloride of mercury, occasionally spraying out the nares. Medicine need not be given in mild .cases. The spray should be used hourly at first. Chlorate of potash and permanganate of potash to be carefully avoided. Perchloride of iron is useful only on account of the hydrochloric acid. In severe forms, and in children who cannot be sprayed, to paint the throat with glycerine preparation every two or three hours—10 per cent, salicylate of soda in glycerine ; saturated solution of boracic acid in glycerine. On account of its affinity for water, glycerine rapidly penetrates the mucous membrane, carrying with it the antiseptic. The treatment recommended by Loeffler, in ' Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift' for March 5th, 1891, seems to me exceptionally harsh and irritating. He recommends gargles of corrosive sublimate, 1 to 1000 ; 3 per cent, of carbolic acid, dissolved in 30 per cent, of alcohol; also alcohol and oil of turpentine, to each of which is added 2 per cent, carbolic acid. Also concentrated watery solutions of creasote. These irritating drugs savour very much of the early days of antiseptics, when pure carbolic acid, with putty, were used as surgical dressings. Some of the above (e. g. turpentine) are almost caustic in their action. As a result of using the more efficient and less irritating drugs, I have found almost every case, however severe, yield to treatment. In my early days, especially when I have contemplated trache- otomy, but failed to obtain permission, by persevering with measures already described the cases have gradually recovered. So impressed have I been on this subject, that I am tempted to feel that if a case can be saved it is possible without tracheotomy. I attribute death in two of my cases of tracheotomy to diphtherin poisoning, as post-mortem showed all the membrane had been removed from the trachea, larynx, and even fauces. I strongly urge the carbolic spray or other antiseptic inhalation, iodoform insufflation, and small doses of pilocarpine hypo- dermically, as soon as the disease invades the larynx. In searching for the specific organism, the condition of the mouth, the fauces especially, and the membrane are of the utmost impor- tance. In all my cases, I have examined throats which had been efficiently cleansed with one or other of the above antiseptics. In 2