A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    125/554 (page 113)
    doubtless owing to the delicate layer of epithelium on the upper surface of the velum as compared to that on the under surface or m the oro- pharnyx Sixty grains to the ounce has been employed with good effect in Erysipelas of the Throat and Pharyngeal Syphilis. Five to ten grains to the ounce is a useful lotion for injection in (Esophageal Spasm. According to M. Mackenzie three or four injections made on alternate days will effect a cure or relieve the parts so much that bougies can be subsequently used. A weak ointment of nitrate of silver mixed with cosmolme smeared on a flexible bougie is recommended by J. Solis Cohen, for Inflammation OF the oesophagus. Formerly nitrate of silver in concentrated solution was used in the treatment of Adenoid Growths in the naso-pharynx. The suffering caused sometimes by this application was extreme. Such practice is now generally abandoned. For the treatment of Mucous Patches of the pharynx a solution of sixty grains to the ounce makes a desirable appli- cation. In the mouth the use of nitrate of silver is limited to a few conditions. The solid stick or a concentrated solution lightly applied to Ulcerated Aphthous or Specific Mucous Patches will generally be followed by a prompt cure. The treatment is unsuitable to infancy. The inflamed tags of gum tissue about the cavity of a recently extracted tooth are successfully treated by the same means. On the tonsils nitrate of silver is of marked value in a strength of twenty grains to an ounce carefully applied to each recess of depression. In Tonsillar Hyper- trophy and Diphtheria the agent is worse than useless. As a cautery it is ineffective. The action of fused crystals upon the crypts is that of an astringent, not that of a caustic. Indeed, it is often not even astrin- gent, but excitant. In Acute Coryza a lotion or powder in the strength of two grains to the ounce may be thrown in the nose. But excessive sneezing sometimes follows its use. In the Purulent Catarrh of children the remedy can be employed with increased probability of success. Tags of inflamed tissue, bright red in color and exceedingly vascular, created by the action of the saw in intra-nasal surgery, are often the source of secondary hemor- rhage ; they should be carefully sought for by about the fourth or fifth day after the operation and touched with the solid nitrate of silver or its saturated solution. The preparations of iron appear to have little effect upon such formations. A. Nelaton Pathologic Chirurgicale, Paris, 2d ed., 1874, vol. Ill, p. 748) uses nitrate of silver in the local treatment of Nasal Polypus. The use of this agent in the treatment of Chronic Nasal Catarrh does not appear to be uniformly endorsed. C. Seller asserts that it should never be used ; but Michel, Schrotter, and Niemeyer * as well as numerous other writers, claim its value. It is probable that Ger-