CARBOLIC ACID. 305 



for besides many instances which hare been cited to me, I may add that I have 

 often used it in a family in wliich there were eight or ten children, and that 

 none oi tlie family have suflFered from those diseases except those who were 

 attacked previously to the employment of carbolic acid about the dwellings in 

 which such diseases existed. 



Besides its antiseptic action, the caustic properties of carbolic acid are found 

 useful ; most beneficial effects are obtained from it in the treatment of very 

 dangerous and sometimes mortal complaints, such as carbuncle, quinsy, dip- 

 theria, etc. , as shown by Dr. Turner, of Manchester ; and also in less severe 

 affections, such as hemorrhoids, internal and external fistulas and other similar 

 complaints. But what must be especially mentioned is the employment of car- 

 bolic acid in preserving in a healthy state certain foetid purulent sores, and 

 preventing the repulsive odor which comes from them, an odor which is the 

 symptom of a change in the tissues, and which often presents the greatest 

 danger to the patient. The services which carbolic acid renders to surgery 

 can be judged of by reading several most interesting papers on compound 

 fractures, ulcers, etc., lately published in the Lancet by J. "Lister, F. E. S. ; 

 and allow me to draw your special attention to the following paragraphs which 

 are to be found is a paper published in the journal of the 25th September, 1867 : 

 ' The material which I have employed is carbolic or phenic acid, a volatile or- 

 ganic compound, which appears to exercise a peculiar destructive influence 

 upon low forms of life, and hence is the most powerful antiseptic with which 

 we are at present acquainted. The first class of cases to which I applied it, 

 was that of compound fractures, in which the effects of decomposition in the 

 injured jjart were especially striking and pernicious. The results have been 

 such as to establish conclusively the great principle that all the local inflamma- 

 tory mischief and febrile disturbance which follow severe injuries are due to 

 the irritating and poisonous influences of decomposing blood or sloughs. 

 These evils are entirely avoided by antiseptics treatment, so that limbs which 

 otherwise would be unhesitatingly condemned to amputation may be retained 

 with confidence of the best result. Since the antiseptic treatment has been 

 brought into full operation, and wounds and absesses no longer poison the 

 atmosphere with putrid exhalations, my wards, though otherwise in precisely 

 the same circumstances as before, have completely changed their character; 

 so that during the last nine months not a single instance of pyaemia, hospital 

 gangrene or erysipelas, has occurred to them.' My hearers can also witness 

 the same remarkable results by visiting the two sick wards of Dr. Maissonneuve, 

 at the Hotel Dieu. Further, I must not overlook the valuable application 

 made of it to gangrene in hospitals by the eminent physician, James Paget, 

 Esq. ; and lately it has been used by many of the most eminent medical men 

 with marked success in the scourges of humanity, phthisis and syphilis. 



In agriculture our firm has stimulated the employment of carbolic acid for 

 the cure of certain diseases very common to sheep — scab for example. The 

 method of treatment customary in similar cases was very imperfect as well as 

 dangerous, whilst with carbolic acid this malady is cured without danger to 

 the animal by dipping it for a minute, often only for a few seconds, in water 

 containing a small quantity of carbolic acid. For this purpose pure acid would 

 be too expensive and is not used, nor concentrated acid, which ignorant men 

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