LAMENESS IN HOUSES. 
365 
in truth, say the pharmacopeia has been literally ransacked. 
Caustics have obtained — and, I think, deservedly so — most 
favour; though astringents, stimulants, anti-putrescents, &c. 
have likewise been introduced, and no doubt on occasions, in 
certain forms and stages of the disease, have their utility. For 
the primary object in view, viz., the destruction of the fungus, 
I am acquainted with no caustic so powerful and effectual as 
the undiluted nitric acid, Sometimes 1 use the sesquichloride 
of antimony (the butter of antimony); and, as a variation of the 
caustic dressing, and one not so virulent as the nitric acid, it is 
very useful in its turn. I have likewise employed for the pur- 
pose the various preparations of arsenic, mercury, copper, zinc, 
&c. ; but though some of these will be found very serviceable 
as we proceed, there is no dressing so great a favourite with me 
for the “eating away” of the fungus as nitric acid. Its effect 
is instantaneous and decided, and its erodent operation is con- 
fined to the parts it touches. Supposing we make up our mind 
to first pare down the sprouting fungus with a sharp knife, the 
dressing will immediately succeed this. In ordinary cases, 
however, this is not required. Simply wiping the diseased 
parts dry will be sufficient, which done with a sort of mop — 
made by twisting a skein of tow around the end of a small stick 
— the fungus ought to have every part of its surface thoroughly 
wetted with the acid, by well mopping and rubbing the dressing 
into its pores and clefts and crevices. Or, should the butter of 
antimony be preferred, let it be used in the same manner. This 
done, thick pledgets of soft tow must be laid upon the caute- 
rized surfaces, and upon them similar pledgets of coarse tow — 
that answering every purpose for an outer covering — the whole 
to be pressed down with as much force as the diseased parts can 
bear, and the tout ensemble confined within the sole of the foot 
by cross-bars of iron hooping, of the requisite length, being driven 
with the hammer underneath the web of the shoe, and nicely 
adjusted to their situation by a final blow or two from the 
hammer at such places as they may shew any appearance of 
bulging or bowing downward. This is the common mode of 
securing the dressing when no leather or gutta pereha or box 
shoe is made use of; in which cases, of course, cross-bars will 
not be required. Should the disease have made such incursions 
into the foot as to render it impossible, after the necessary paring 
has been made, to find sufficient hold of crust for nailing a shoe 
to, the dressing must he bolstered up with an abundance of 
coarse tow, over which a piece of sacking or coarse cloth may be 
put, and the whole bound together with tape, or, what proves an 
exceedingly useful ligature in such cases, rope-yarn or tar-cord, 
with which the foot, thus thickly covered, ought to be cleverly 
and tightly packed up. 
