Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 155 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 155 pages of information about Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892.

The treatment applicable to one condition seems to be equally successful when applied to the other.  In cellulitis, free incisions, antiseptic lotions, and active stimulation are the three means upon which the surgeon mainly depends, and in combating the local and general symptoms excited by snake bite poisoning, the same treatment has given me the successful results detailed above.  Whether or not permanganate of potassium is more active than other antiseptics in snake bite poisoning I am not prepared to state, but the high authority of S. Weir Mitchell, together with my own experience, does not incline me to substitute any other drug at present.

I would formulate the treatment for poison of the rattlesnake as follows: 

1.  Free incisions to the bottom of the wound and immediate cauterization; or, if this is not practicable, sucking of the wound.

2.  The immediate application of an intermittent tourniquet, that is, one which is relaxed for a moment at a time, so that the poison may gain admission into the circulation in small doses.

3.  The free administration of alcohol or carbonate of ammonium.

This might be termed the urgency treatment of snake bite poisoning.  The curative treatment requires—­

4.  Free incisions into all portions of the inflamed tissues, and the thorough kneading into these incisions of a fifteen per cent. solution of permanganate of potassium.

5.  Multiple injections of the same solution into all the inflamed regions, but particularly into the region of the wound.

6.  The complete surrounding of all the involved tissues, by permanganate of potassium injections placed from half an inch to an inch apart, the needle being driven into the healthy tissue just beyond the line of demarkation, and its point being carried to the deepest part of the border of the indurated area.

7.  The permanganate of potassium solution should be used freely in fifteen per cent. solution.  I have used one and a half drachms of the pure drug diluted, and would not hesitate to use four times that quantity were it necessary, since it seems to exert no deleterious effect, either locally or generally.

8.  The involved area should be dressed by means of lint saturated with fifteen per cent. permanganate of potassium solution.  Stimulants should be given according to the indications—­i.e., the condition of the pulse.  Laxatives, diuretics, and diaphoretics should be administered to aid in the elimination of the poison.  The diet should be as nutritious as the stomach can digest.—­The Therapeutic Gazette.

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CHINESE COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.

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Scientific American Supplement, No. 841, February 13, 1892 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.