32 ON A NEW METHOD OF TREATING 



appetite excellent, and he had the appearance of a man in perfect health. The 

 limb was still free from pain, while the swelhng due to extravasation of blood had 

 disappeared, and the skin was of natural aspect. After the second day from the 

 accident, there had not been even any discharge of serum from beneath the 

 crust, which had been daily touched with carbolic acid, the fomentations being 

 also continued, as he found them comfortable. 



I need not hesitate to say that all danger in this case is over ; and that the 

 compound fracture is already converted into a simple one under circumstances 

 which, even for a simple fracture, would have been trying. 



In revising the proof, after nine days more have elapsed, I may add that 

 all has continued to go on well. 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE ON ABSCESS 



I will now give a description of a new method of treating abscess, which 

 has afforded results so satisfactory that it does not seem right to withhold it 

 longer from the profession generally. 



It is based, like the treatment of compound fracture, on the antiseptic 

 principle, and the material employed is essentially the same — namely, carbolic 

 acid, but differently applied in accordance with the difference of the circum- 

 stances. In compound fracture there is an irregular wound, which has prob- 

 ably been exposed to the air for hours before it is seen by the surgeon, and 

 may therefore contain in its interstices the atmospheric germs which are the 

 causes of decomposition, and these must be destroyed by the energetic applica- 

 tion of the antiseptic agent. In an unopened abscess, on the other hand, as 

 a general rule, no septic organisms are present, so that it is not necessary to 

 introduce the carbolic acid into the interior. Here the essential object is to 

 guard against the introduction of living particles from without, at the same 

 time that a free exit is afforded for the constant discharge of the contents. The 

 mode in which this is accomplished is as follows : — 



A solution of one part of crystallized carbolic acid in four parts of boiled 

 linseed oil having been prepared, a piece of rag from four to six inches square 

 is dipped in the oily mixture, and laid upon the skin where the incision is to 

 be made. The lower edge of the rag being then raised, while the upper edge 

 is kept from slipping by an assistant, a common scalpel or bistoury dipped in 

 the oil is plunged into the cavity of the abscess, and an opening about three- 

 quarters of an inch in length is made, and the instant the knife is withdrawn 

 the rag is dropped upon the skin as an antiseptic curtain, beneath which the 



