196 
CHLORIDE OF ZINC AS AN ESCHAROTIC. 
anything like quackery in my statement of the case, and if 
ever they saw a more glaring specimen than your leader on 
it. There are other points I should have wished to notice, 
but will not trespass further on your space. 
I am, your obedient servant, 
Thomas Aitken Dollar. 
To the Editors of ‘ The Veterinarian 
Facts and Observations. 
ON THE CHLORIDE OF ZINC AS AN ESCHAROTIC. 
By John Cawood Wordsworth, Esq. 
Of all the varied forms of cautery which have been used 
in medicine, none can be compared for efficiency and dis¬ 
patch with the hot iron, which has also the additional advan¬ 
tage of inflicting less pain than any other escharotic. But 
so great a prejudice has existed against it in this country, 
as well amongst surgeons as patients, that its use has been, 
in a great measure, limited to comparative surgery. Chloro¬ 
form has, in a great degree, divested it of its terrors, and both 
surgeons and patients are great gainers by its adoption. 
Our continental neighbours use it largely, and 'with excellent 
effect. They do not seem to have that antipathy to its 
employment which is so common in this country, and so 
take advantage of its action in many cases for which we 
employ the chemical cauterants—such as the mineral acids, 
arsenic, and chlorides. 
But, in many instances, the application of the “ actual 
cautery” is not so convenient as that of the “potential” ones. 
Under such circumstances, I believe none can be more 
effectively and certainly used than the chloride of zinc. It 
can be managed with the greatest precision, and so regulated 
as to produce a slough of the thickness of brown paper, or, 
if desired, of half an inch in depth. Its use is adapted for 
those cases in which it is desired to arrest a morbid action ; 
as, for instance, the varied forms of phagedaena, or other 
specific ulcerations, in which a superficial slough only is 
required ; or for the enucleation of cancerous or epithelial 
growths, in which the surface is ulcerated, and from their 
extent, or some other condition, the knife is inadmissible. 
Its effect is far more extensive than that of the acids, and, 
