~ 
SET. |. 198 
‘There may be some reason in this, though I confess 
Ihave never seen such results. Allowing it to be 
so, the caustic issue can be managed pretty nearly 
as wellas the seton, so as to lessen gradually its pur- 
ulent evacuation. by a cautious attention to the na- 
ture of the dressings applied with a view to heal it. 
The mere introduction of the seton is not more pain- 
ful than venesection, if adroitly done with a sharp 
needle properly furnished with as much silk or tape, 
as will readily pass through the wound it makes: but 
the subsequent inflammation is often considerably 
distressing. and after some time the irritation con- 
veyed, in peculiar habits, to the general nervous 
system, is intolerable. Besides this. they are 
_ More troublesome in the dressing, frequently re- 
quiring in warm weather, two or three ablutions 
in twenty-four hours. Applied to the nape of the | 
neck, they produce more stiffness than caustic 
issues, which is particularly inconvenient from ite% 4 
impeding the free rotation of the head. Notwith- — 
standing all these inconveniences however, they. 7 
possess some advantages over issues, common Ors: 
caustic; and according to my observation, they _ 
induce a greater drain. ‘They may be introduced 
even without the consciousness of the patient, who 
alarmed at the slightest incision by a knife in the ‘ 
teguments or muscles, would resist the further 
progress of the operation. They are used for the — 
Same purposes as issues 
7 
