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.

    189/554 (page 177)
    The apparatus consists of a couple of rubber bulbs and tubes, such as are used in atomizers, a glass receptacle for benzine, and a long, hollow cham- ber with a perforated wooden handle, through which the vapor is blown. By an arrangement of interior tubes the mixed vapor of air and gas is carried around and over a metallic point. This varies in size and shape, according to the use for which it is intended. This point is heated in an alcohol flame, and then the gases are blown over it by the peculiar appa- ratus. By working the bulbs with more or less rapidity, the point is maintained at any degree of heat required. (See Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences, art. ''Cauterization.) The Pacquelin cautery can be used for all the purposes for which the actual cautery is employed. A more convenient instrument for cauterization in diseases of the skin is the electro-cautery. A battery having some arrangement whereby the intensity of the cur- rent can be varied at will is required, and a holder to which platinum knives, spirals, etc., are to be attached as desired. The platinum points should not be heated beyond cherry-red. Scarification can be used by this cautery in Lupus Vulgaris and in Lupus Erythematosus with very satisfactory results. Small N^vi, Warts, hairy or other Moles, the tumors of Molluscum Epitheliale, and other growths can be very readily and satisfactorily removed by the electric cautery. The only objection to its use is that patients are apt to be afraid of it, as of the knife. The glow of the cautery and the smell of burning flesh give at times unnecessary alarm to timid persons. For that reason the chemical caustics, where these can be employed, are more satisfactory. (For further description of the electro-cautery, see Van Harlingen, Handbook of Skin Diseases, 2d ed., Phila., 1889.) Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat.—The phenomena which attends the use of cautery on the mucous surfaces are as follows: If the cautery be applied to the epithelium, the fire rapidly whitens the selected spot and dense white fumes escape, which have the characteristic ammoni- acal odor of singed hoofs. If applied to the deeper layer of the mem- brane, or to the submucous tissues, the selected surface has a black color, due to the charring of the tissue; it has a black centre surrounded by an areola of white color, caused by the coagulation of albumin on the tissues between the charred spot and untouched parts. When a pit-like depression is made, the sides may alone be charred. The eschar is the part which, being so disorganized by the heat, sloughs off in a few days, leaving an ulcer which rapidly heals. Should the eschar be confined to the epithelial layer, the parts will heal without cicatrix, but should the burning penetrate the connective tissue, then the white cicatrix is inevit- able. The compact tissue, as the derm and mucoperiosteum, is more 12