6. Carbuncle, Snap Bean Poultice for.--"Apply snap bean leaves beat up fine. Bruise the leaves until they are real fine, then apply as a poultice."
PHYSICIANS" TREATMENT for Carbuncles.--Keep up the strength by a nourishing diet and in some cases, stimulants.
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Local.--Cut it open thoroughly by a cross (crucial) cut, like this (x).
The cut must reach through the ma.s.s to sound tissue beneath and beyond it.
Then sc.r.a.pe out all the dead tissue. Dress with iodoform or sterile gauze.
An antiseptic like listerine, glyco-thymoline, etc., can be used to wet the gauze, put on as a dressing afterwards and then more dry gauze above, strapped with adhesive plaster. Water and instruments must be boiled, hands must be absolutely clean. Everything around it must be clean.
Sometimes it is necessary to go slowly and take out at each dressing only what can be easily removed, It is not always possible to get the whole ma.s.s away at once. Opening the carbuncle and giving free drainage afford great relief from the fever and often general symptoms. When the part feels as if it needed redressing, it should be done, for it then gives much relief. The dressings frequently become hard and do not absorb all of the material ready to be discharged. It is usually proper and prudent to dress a carbuncle two or three times a day. There is no danger if the one who dresses it is clean with the instruments, hands and gauze or cotton.
LIVER SPOTS, Moth Patch, Chloasma, etc.--This is a discoloration of the skin of a yellowish to a blackish tint of varying size and shape.
Causes.--It may be due to external agencies, such as rubbing, scratching, heat (tanning and sunburn) blistering; or due to diseases such as tuberculosis, cancer, malaria, Addison"s disease, disease of the womb, pregnancy.
PHYSICIANS" TREATMENT for Liver Spots.--Remove all causes if possible.
Local.--This must be carefully used, find out first how sensitive the skin is. Dr. Bulkley recommends this lotion:
Corrosive Sublimate 5 grains Dilute Acetic Acid 2 drams Borax 40 grains Rose water enough for 4 ounces
Shake bottle, mix and apply to the part night and morning. If the skin becomes too scaly, a mild soothing ointment should be subst.i.tuted for the above. White suggests the following:
Hydrarg. Ammon. Chlar 2 drams Subnitrate Bis.m.u.th 2 drams Starch 1/20 ounce Glycerin 1/2 ounce
Mix and apply twice daily.
The application of peroxide of hydrogen has only a temporary effect.
BLACK-HEADS. Flesh Worms, Comedones, Pimples, etc.--This is a disorder of the sebaceous glands in which the sebaceous (fatty, cheesy) secretions become thickened; the excreting ducts, appearing on the surface, as yellowish or blackish points. They appear chiefly on the face, neck, chest, and back and are very unsightly.
Symptoms.--They are easily pressed out, and appear then as thread-like, whitish ma.s.ses which contain fatty material. The black point may be due to pigment or to dirt from without. Comedones may exist with acne and seborrhoea and excessive secretion of seb.u.m.
Causes.--Want of tone to the skin, which performs its functions sluggishly. Stomach-bowel disorders, menstrual disturbances and anemia are other causes and a.s.sist in making them worse. Improper care of the skin and dusty air may be other a.s.sistant causes.
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MOTHERS" REMEDIES. For Pimples and Black-heads.--l. Pimples on the face, effective yet harmless remedy for:
Camphor 10 grains Acacia (pulverized) 20 grains Sulphur (precipitated) 2 drams Lime water 2 ounces Rose water 2 ounces
Apply on the face with a soft cloth at bedtime. Allow to dry and brush off the excess of the powder.
Anyone suffering from these eruptions is usually willing to try every known remedy. The above is excellent and very effective and is harmless.
2. Pimples, Alum Water for.--"Take a teaspoonful of alum to a quart of water and use as a wash, say three times a day. This will cure ordinary pimples on the face."
3. Skin Blotches, Cream of Tartar and Sulphur for.--"Two ounces cream tartar and one ounce of powdered sulphur (from the lump). Mix.
Dose:--Teaspoonful in a little water three times a day will cure."
4. Rough Skin, Healing Cream for.--"One-fourth cup tallow melted, one teaspoonful glycerin, small lump camphor, dissolved. Mix all together by warming sufficiently." Rub in thoroughly as you do any face cream.
PHYSICIANS" TREATMENT for Pimples.--Remove the cause if possible. The diet should be like that given under dyspepsia and constipation. Menstrual disorders should be remedied.
Local.--Remove the plugs (of seb.u.m) and stimulate the skin glands. For this purpose prolonged (ten minutes at a time) bathing of the face with hot water and soap; tincture of green soap in the more indolent, sluggish cases, should precede the pressing out of the blackheads: Lateral pressure with the fingers or with the comedone extractor, especially contrived for this purpose, will express the black-heads. After they are out, the skin dried and cleaned, various stimulating remedies can be applied in ointments and lotions such as following:
1. "Precipitated Sulphur 1 dram Ointment of Rose water 1 ounce
Mix and rub on at night."
2. Beta-Naphthol 1/2 dram Resorcin 1/2 dram Lanolin 1 ounce
Mix and apply locally.
INFLAMMATION of the Skin. (Dermat.i.tis).--This is due to many causes. It can come from injuries, for instance the rubbing or pressure of ill-fitting clothes, bandages, bites of insects and from scratching.
Varieties.--Dermat.i.tis ambustionis, (burning). This is due to excessive heat upon the skin.
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PHYSICIANS" TREATMENT for Inflammation of the Skin.--Relieve the pain; protect the parts; exclude the air. Paint the burned part with a one to five per cent solution of cocaine, according to the severity of inflammation. Then apply soothing lotions of equal parts of lime-water and olive or linseed oil; cover the whole with absorbent cotton. Dusting powder of soda bicarbonate may also be used, or common soda. In burns with vesicles, etc., open them and then cover with carbolized oil, gauze and adhesive to hold the dressing. The parts can be washed with a solution of boric acid, one teaspoonful to a cup of water; then dust upon the parts sugar of lead once or twice a day. Some use it in solution; I like the powder better. Infusion of lobelia, one ounce to pint of hot water, is good. Also lead and laudanum wash.
ECZEMA. (Humid Tetter-Salt Rheum-Dry Tetter). Definition.--Eczema is an inflammatory disease of the skin, characterized at its commencement by redness, pimples, vesicles, pustules and their combinations, with itching and burning. It terminates in a watery or pus-like discharge with the formation of crusts or scaling.
Varieties.--There are many varieties, red, scaly, fissured, watery looking and hard skin.
Symptoms.--Itching is almost always a symptom of this disease. There is more or less pouring out of liquid (serum). The dry, scaly type, and the weeping type, may alternate with each other. There are six cardinal symptoms; inflammation, itching, moisture, crusting, infiltration (liquid filling of the tissues), fissuring or cracking. Dr. Fox says that nearly one-third of all skin diseases are eczema in some of its stages or varieties. In one kind there is red spot (macule). The skin is dry, of a bright or dull red color, with intense itching or burning, more or less watery swelling in the acute stage. In the chronic stage, the skin becomes thick and covered with fine dry scales, usually in the face (Eczema Erythematosum).
Eczema Vesiculosum. (Vesicular Eczema).--This is preceded by a feeling of heat and irritation about the part. In a short time pinhead sized vesicles appear. These frequently run together and form patches. They rupture rapidly; the liquid is poured out, dries up and forms crusts. The discharge stiffens linen, a characteristic of this variety.
Eczema Pustulosum. (Pustules). Pustular Kind.--This is nearly like the preceding. The vesicles have pus in them from the start or develop from the vesicles. When the pustules rupture, their contents dry up to the thick greenish-yellow crusts. The scalp and face, in children especially, are the favored spots for this kind. It occurs in poorly nourished children.
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Eczema Papulosum. (Papular Variety).--This is characterized by flat or sharp pointed reddish pimples (papules), varying in size from a small to a large pin-head. They are usually numerous, run or crowd together and form large patches. The itching is usually very intense. This causes much scratching, rawness and crusts. The pimples may continue as such, or change into vesicles. In chronic cases they run together, and finally form thick scaly patches, and may run into a scaly eczema.
Eczema Rubrum (red).--The skin looks red, raw, and "weeps." It is most commonly found about the face and scalp in children, and the lower parts of the legs in the old.
Eczema Squamosis. (Scaling).--This may follow any of the other varieties, but usually follows the red and pimple (papule) variety. They are various sized and shaped reddish patches, which are dry and more or less scaly.
Thickening is always present, also a tendency to cracking of the skin, especially if it affects the joints. There are other varieties but these are the most important.
RECOVERY.--Eczema has a tendency to persist and rarely disappears spontaneously.
Causes.--Gout, diabetes, rheumatism, Bright"s disease, dyspepsia, constipation, nervous trouble, heat, cold, strong soaps, acids, alkalies, rubbing, scratching, etc.