Volume 3

The principles and practice of surgery, founded upon the most extensive hospital and private practice, during a period of nearly fifty years; with numerous plates, illustrative both of healthy and diseased structure ... / Edited by Alexander Lee.

  • Cooper, Astley, Sir, 1768-1841
Date:
1837-1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of surgery, founded upon the most extensive hospital and private practice, during a period of nearly fifty years; with numerous plates, illustrative both of healthy and diseased structure ... / Edited by Alexander Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    142/784 (page 114)
    Treatment of irritable chan- cre. excess, or be careless of his health, the sore will slough, and often end in the destruction of the penis. Do not think that it is a rare occurrence for the penis to be destroyed by syphilis ; no, a chancre that has remained weeks in a healthy state shall become irritable, and by maltreatment, by the injudicious and improper use ot mercury, shall slough, and end in the destruction of the penis, this is not a rare case, and is attributed to the venereal disease, which is an effect of the injudicious use of mercury. This is a true history of the case. When you see a sore take on the sloughing appearance, the treatment must be changed, the employ- ment of mercury suspended: gently stimulate the pait by the nitric acid lotion; there is no better application in this stage of the disease than this, and those who have attended to the practice of the hospital need not be told of this by me. From 30 to 50 drops of acid to a quart of water is the proportion in which you should use the acid. Fomentations and poultices must sometimes be employed, but in general they are not good, as they soften and weaken the parts rather too much ; heat and moisture do not agree in these cases. Warm spirits of turpentine may some- time s** be employed with benefit. You will be obliged to have recourse to a great number of applications, and frequently to change them before any relief can be obtained. We had a girl in Lydia’s ward of St. Thomas’s hospital, who had sloughing of the pudendum; seventeen or eighteen different applications were employed, but the same application seldom agreed with the sore for five days in succession, it was obliged to be changed, and some other used—the girl however ultimately recovered. If the patient be very irritable, opium and the compound decoc- tion of sarsaparilla should be exhibited ; in this way you will diminish the irritability of the part. When the sloughing ex- tends, the ammonia combined with opium will be found of con- siderable benefit; five grains of ammonia and one grain of opium three times a day. We are in the habit of giving in these hospitals ammonia and musk, ten grains of musk and five grains of ammonia three times a day in the form of a bolus, and on the whole we