DISEASES. 



723 



by the actual cautery; moreover, they frequently injured the 

 healthy structures by irritating them and increasing the inflam- 

 mation, and thus resulting in serious complications. 



As we have said, Hquid caustics are largely used to arrest the 

 spread of the caries; they modify the process of decomposition, 

 dry up the suppuration and stimulate the tissues w^ithout injuring 

 the healthy structures. This mode of treatment must be credited 

 to Mariage, who in 1847 established the unfailing efficacy of re- 

 peated injections of Villate's solution; one of sulphate of copper 

 and sulphate of zinc, 64 grammes of each in 1 liter of vinegar, 

 and decomposed by 125 grammes of Goulard's extract. It is 

 really simply a solution in vinegar of acetate of copper and zinc, 

 holding sulphate of lead in suspension. Villate himself had al- 

 ready used his solution with success by injecting it in cartilagin- 

 ous quittor as early as 1829, since which time Burgniet, Verrier, 

 Sr., Collignon and others have recognized the benefit of liquid 

 €Scharotics in the treatment of the same disease. Villate's solu- 

 tion is not a specific, and cartilaginous quittor has been cured by 

 the injection of tincture of sublimate with solution of nitrate of 

 silver (Bernard), with the perchloride of iron, chloride of copper, 

 sulphate of copper and zinc, nitrate of lead, more or less concen- 

 trated mineral acids, and especially the Eabel water (Collignon). 



It is difiicult to say which is the more useful of these drugs 

 and which has been more successful. Success has also been ob- 

 tained with injections of tincture of iodine, phenic acid and even 

 petroleum. It is less the nature of the drug that insures the ef- 

 fect than the mode of using it. We ought also to say that, ad- 

 vantageous as this mode of treatment is, it is not infallible, though 

 Mariage and others so consider it. It is not to be preferred to 

 the extirpation of the cartilage, an operation which proves suc- 

 cessful when all other means have failed. 



To obtain a cure by the use of liquid applications it is essen- 

 tial to make injections every day, and even several times daily. 

 These are made with a syringe, carefuUy adapted in resjoect to 

 size, with a small canula. The injection must be pushed well in, 

 but must be allowed to escape freely after coming in contact with 

 all the diseased sui-faces which it is designed to modify. To effect 

 this, it becomes necessary, as the fistulse are sometimes very nar- 

 row, and even irregular, to enlai'ge them, or to make counter 

 openings. Mariage had originally insisted that these jprecautiona 



