OAKUM  AS  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  LINT,  ETC.  411 
price  of  quicksilver  will  constantly  decrease  until  it  reaches  8 
or  10  cents  per  lb.  Quicksilver  will  then  be  used  with  a  more 
liberal  hand  in  the- search  for  gold  and  silver,  and  many  other 
advantages  to  the  world  will  arise  from  its  cheapness." — Journ. 
Frank,  Inst.,  Aug.  1862,  from  Lond.  Mining  Journal. 
OAKUM  AS  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  LINT,  IN  GUN-SHOT  AND  OTHER 
SUPPURATING  WOUNDS. 
By  Lewis  A.  Sayre,  M.  D.,  Surgeon  to  Bellevue  Hospital,  etc. 
I  have  for  many  years  past  been  in  the  habit  of  using  picked 
oakum,  in  all  cases  of  suppurating  wounds,  particularly  in  con- 
nection with  opened  joints,  where  the  suppuration  is  excessive. 
The  great  number  of  gun-shot  wounds  now  in  Bellevue  Hospital, 
where  I  use  it  entirely  to  the  exclusion  of  lint,  has  furnished  an 
opportunity  for  a  number  of  army  surgeons  to  examine  its  ad- 
vantages, and  they  have  requested  me  to  make  the  subject  more 
generally  known  to  the  profession  through  the  medium  of  your 
valuable  medical  journal. 
One  of  the  objects  of  lint  applied  to  a  suppurating  wound,  is 
to  absorb  the  discharge ;  now  as  most  of  the  lint  is  composed 
either  entirely  or  in  great  part  of  cotton,  it  acts  more  like  a 
tampon,  or  a  retainer  of  the  secretions,  than  as  an  absorber. 
If  you  will  take  a  bale  of  cotton  and  immerse  it  in  the  river 
for  one  month,  or  even  longer,  and  then  remove  it,  you  will 
find  on  opening  it  that  the  cotton  in  the  centre  of  the  bale  is 
perfectly  dry,  thus  proving  that  it  cannot  be  soaked  through  any 
great  thickness,  or  that  it  will  not  absorb  moisture.  So,  when 
placed  over  a  suppurating  wound  and  left  for  some  hours,  it  will 
be  found  perfectly  dry  except  at  the  point  of  contact :  acting,  in 
fact,  like  a  bung  in  a  barrel,  or  a  cork  in  a  bottle — to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  pus — which  necessarily  burrows  in  different 
directions,  thus  forming  extensive  abscesses,  and  adding  greatly 
to  the  danger  of  the  patient ;  and  when  removed,  the  pus  will 
gush  out  in  large  quantities.  Now,  if  you  place  picked  oakum 
over  these  same  wounds,  you  will  find  after  the  same  number  of 
hours,  that  the  oakum  is  perfectly  saturated  with  pus,  and  the 
wound  itself  almost  perfectly  dry  and  clean — the  oakum  acting 
