410 
Home Department. 
THE ACTUAL CAUTERY IN HUMAN SURGERY. 
Case of Extensive Phagedcenic Ulceration (in a man), successfully 
treated by the Actual Cautery . By Dr. Chadwick, Edin- 
burgh. 
J. H. contracted a sore behind the corona glandis (penis), 
which he had sufficient reason to believe was syphilitic. He 
went to a quack doctor, who applied caustic freely to it. A 
bubo was the consequence, which suppurated and broke. 
This degenerated into “ a foul ulcer of the size of the palm of 
the hand , 55 whose u edges were ragged, uneven, and under- 
mined, secreting a thin, fetid," sanguineous discharge . 55 The 
patient fell into ill health, was confined to his bed, and took 
sarsaparilla, mineral acids, quinine, opium, iodine, &c. 
te His friends becoming alarmed, they requested that Dr. 
Pemberton, of Wigan, might see him along with me, and the 
same evening he did so. That gentleman made some sug- 
gestions as to treatment, which were carried out for a 
fortnight, but, unfortunately, as heretofore, without any alle- 
viation of the symptoms ; in addition to which, our patient 
had now profuse perspirations, colliquative diarrhoea, ex- 
cruciating pain, and sleepless nights. All these circumstances 
combined exhausted him to an alarming degree. Now the 
wound extended down the inside of the thigh towards the 
ischium, across one side of the pubis to the linea alba, pro- 
ceeding upwards, half way towards the umbilicus. As we 
had tried every remedial measure we thought likely to be 
beneficial, Dr. Pemberton informed me that Mr. Moore, of 
Bolton, had related a similar case to him, which also had 
resisted every plan of treatment, until it was resolved, as a 
dernier ressort, to apply the actual cautery, and which had the 
desired effect. 
“We expressed a desire that Mr. Moore should meet us 
in consultation, and accordingly the following day he did so. 
After examining the case, and being informed of the treat- 
ment that had been adopted, he gave it as his decided opinion 
that nothing short of the hot iron would prevent the patient 
succumbing from the malady, to which procedure our patient, 
nearly worn out by suffering, at once assented ; consequently 
it was done at once, and afterwards the parts covered with 
pledgets of lint, spread with cerate, composed of two parts of 
the cerate of resin, and one of the oil of turpentine : a 
draught was administered, containing forty drops of tincture 
