An application which satisfactorily fulfils these requirements is picric acid.  Pads of lint or gauze are lightly wrung out of a solution made up of picric acid, 1.5 drams; absolute alcohol, 3 ounces; distilled water, 40 ounces, and applied over the whole of the reddened area.  These are covered with antiseptic wool, without any waterproof covering, and retained in position by a many-tailed bandage.  The dressing should be changed once or twice a week, under the guidance of the temperature chart, any portion of the original dressing which remains perfectly dry being left undisturbed.  The value of a general anaesthetic in dressing extensive burns, especially in children, can scarcely be overestimated.

Picric acid yields its best results in superficial burns, and it is useful as a primary dressing in all.  As soon as the sloughs separate and a granulating surface forms, the ordinary treatment for a healing sore is instituted.  Any slough under which pus has collected should be cut away with scissors to permit of free drainage.

An occlusive dressing of melted paraffin has also been employed.  A useful preparation consists of:  Paraffin molle 25 per cent., paraffin durum 67 per cent., olive oil 5 per cent., oil of eucalyptus 2 per cent., and beta-naphthol 1/4 per cent.  It has a melting point of 48 C. It is also known as Ambrine and Burnol.  After the burned area has been cleansed and thoroughly dried, it is sponged or painted with the melted paraffin, and before solidification takes place a layer of sterilised gauze is applied and covered with a second coating of paraffin.  Further coats of paraffin are applied every other day to prevent the gauze sticking to the skin.

An alternative method of treating extensive burns is by immersing the part, or even the whole body when the trunk is affected, in a bath of boracic lotion kept at the body temperature, the lotion being frequently renewed.

If a burn is already infected when first seen, it is to be treated on the same principles as govern the treatment of other infected wounds.

All moist or greasy applications, such as Carron oil, carbolic oil and ointments, and all substances like collodion and dry powders, which retain discharges, entirely fail to meet the indications for the rational treatment of burns, and should be abandoned.

Skin-grafting is of great value in hastening healing after extensive burns, and in preventing cicatricial contraction.  The deformities which are so liable to develop from contraction of the cicatrices are treated on general principles.  In the region of the face, neck, and flexures of joints (Fig. 63), where they are most marked, the contracted bands may be divided and the parts stretched, the raw surface left being covered by Thiersch grafts or by flaps of skin raised from adjacent surfaces or from other parts of the body (Fig. 1).

INJURIES PRODUCED BY ELECTRICITY