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XLIX. On the Use of the Blisierer. By Sir Anthony CaRt 

 lisle, Knt. F.R.S. fyc. 



To the Editor of the PJnlosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Sir, 



N my letter to Sir Gilbert Blane upon blistering, &c, men- 

 tioned in your last Magazine, I have endeavoured to unite 

 clearness with brevity; and it was my wish to distinguish a 

 scald from a burn, to prevent practical mistakes in employing 

 the heated metallic instrument. 



The important difference between a scald and a burn is 

 this. A simple scald arising from the momentary application 

 of boiling water ought to be limited to that inflammatory ex- 

 citement of the skin which produces a discharge of serum un- 

 der the scarf skin, and this effect closely resembles a blister 

 occasioned by cantharides ; — but in the case of a burn, the 

 higher degree or longer continuance of the heat corrugates 

 the true skin, and thus its vascular structure is spoiled, and an 

 eschar or a local detachment of the deadened part is the con- 

 sequence. 



When a mere blistering effect is desired, the operator must 

 consider that the intervention of wetted silk presents the me- 

 dium of water several degrees below the boiling point, as the 

 agent to act upon the living skin ; and if the duration of the 

 contact resembles the sudden affusion of scalding water the 

 results are similar. Your query as to the preferableness of 

 common blisters because of their slow and longer continued 

 action, demands an explanatory answer. — With every allow- 

 ance for the diversity of medical opinions, I think the gene- 

 rality of experienced professional men must admit, that where 

 counter irritation is required, the more sudden and intense the 

 diversion, whether from the nervous or the sanguineous sy- 

 stems, the greater will be the power obtained, and thereby a 

 more rational chance of relief from disorders of less degree. 

 I apprehend that the remarkable cures effected by the moxa 

 cautery depend much on the violence of its action, because in 

 those instances where the metallic conductor of heat has acted 

 as an escharotic the remedy has proved most efficacious. 



A gentleman who had resided many years in Tanjore, in- 

 forms me that the actual cautery is a very ancient remedy 

 among the Hindus for diseases of cattle, and that a cow or an 

 ox is rarely seen in that part of India without numerous scars 

 of the cautery upon its body. Thf success of this practice is so 

 firmly established, that the natives resort to the cautery when- 

 ever the hide of an animal appears to be tight or rough, and 

 the application is usually made along the sides of the spine. 



The 



