TREATMENT OF ORIENTAL SORE 205 



parasite and diagnosis of the disease therefrom are 

 most easily made. Should the sores completely 

 break, the parasite rapidly disappears from them, 

 and the outlines of the parasitic area vanish. In 

 most cases no secondary lesions appear near the 

 first sore, but the virus may be carried to other 

 exposed spots by the finger-nails e.g. 9 children 

 scratch a sore, and then by scratching some other 

 healthy spot, inoculate themselves there, though the 

 new sore does not appear, perhaps, for a couple of 

 months. True Oriental sore does not run a fatal 

 course as does Kala-azar, and it is also amenable to 

 treatment with drugs, among which potassium per- 

 manganate has been quite successful. At Bushire 

 Hospital, the patient's skin around the sore was 

 protected by a thick layer of vaseline, and the surface 

 of the ulcer powdered with potassium permanganate, 

 which was kept in position by a pad of gauze and 

 a bandage. The treatment causes great pain for six 

 to eight hours, but, at the most, three treatments are 

 necessary before the sore becomes a simple ulcer, 

 well on the way to healing. 



Nitrate of silver used in the form of a pencil is 

 useful for healing sores that may appear on or near 

 the eyes and mouth. Carbolic acid, either pure or 

 in alcoholic solution, is used for the same purpose. 

 Where the sore is so situated that the simple opera- 

 tion of excision can be carried out, the healing is 

 usually rapid and is not followed by a relapse. 



But prevention is better than cure, and hence 

 much time has been given, by many observers, to 

 attempts to find out how the disease is spread. 



