230 ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF AN EXTRAORDINARY STYPTIC. 
had completely healed. The same result followed a similar opera- 
tion upon the carotid artery of a horse, a few days ago, at the abat- 
toir of Montfaucon. In order to stop the haemorrhage, it is only 
necessary to apply a pledget of lint saturated with the liquid : it is 
not necessary to fasten the pledget round the neck, in order to pre- 
vent its falling off by its own weight. In the last experiment, half 
the lint dropped off ten minutes after its application, while the 
sheep was eating; and though a portion of the artery had been 
taken away, the haemorrhage was not renewed. The advantages 
of the discovery of a matter infallibly styptical are incalculable ; 
and, therefore, it is ardently to be desired that M. Talrich and M. 
Halma-Grande may be enabled to realize the expectations they 
have raised. It will not be with their liquid as with those secret 
remedies that lose all their virtues as soon as they become 
known. In this, the effect will be at once proved ; it will or it 
will not stop an effusion of blood ; it will or it will not at once 
close the artery, and afterwards cause it to heal permanently. All 
the experiments which have been made under our own eyes have 
been perfectly satisfactory. A recent fact, that occurred within our 
own practice, gives us an additional and forcible proof of the effi- 
cacy of the remedy in question. We were called in last' night to 
visit professionally a young man, eighteen years of age, who had 
been suffering for twenty-four hours from a haemorrhage from the 
alveolar artery of the lower jaw, in consequence of the extraction 
of a tooth, and from which he had lost several pounds of blood. 
Compression, dossils of lint dipped in the eau de Rabel, repeated 
applications of ice, and every other means for stopping the effu- 
sion had been tried in vain ; the haemorrhage continued, and the 
mouth was constantly filled with blood. M. Rullier, one of the 
physicians of the hospital of La Charite, who is the medical attend- 
ant of the family, was on the point of applying the actual cautery 
as the only means of stopping the bleeding, when we thought of 
trying the styptic. A quantity was obtained, and immediately used 
by putting a small pledget upon the artery whence the blood is- 
sued, and another on the external edge of the lower jaw, and in 
seven minutes the haemorrhage was completely stopped. Twenty- 
four hours have since passed, and, though the pledget has been re- 
moved, the bleeding has not returned. Other instances will, proba- 
bly, shortly induce us to return to this important discovery. The 
organic change made in the wounded bloodvessel, and which pre- 
vents the continuance of the effusion, is very remarkable. The 
direction of the wound is frequently altered. 
