Those patients who exercise great care in regard to cleanliness and manner of injecting are rarely troubled with abscess. Thus one patient of mine had used morphia subcutaneously in large amount, for over six years, injecting every time, and that several times daily, into a spot upon one thigh, that could be covered by a small tea-saucer, and has never yet had either inflammation or abscess.
Indeed, some persons who exercise no care whatever to keep syringe or solution clean, are free from this troublesome complication. Such a case is related by Dr. Roberts Bartholow, as follows: “One of the most inveterate subjects I have ever encountered was a man living in the wilds of Texas, who used a glass hypodermic syringe, that had been broken many times, and mended with successive deposits of sealing wax, until only the rusty old needle remained in view, and yet he escaped all accidents.”
RESULT OF SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTION ([see p. 71]).
Magendie’s solution is that most commonly used. It is of the strength of sixteen grains of sulphate of morphia to the ounce of water, a few drops of acid being added to dissolve the drug. The solution made after the plan of Dr. H. M. Keyes is excellent. It will keep for a long time unchanged. He writes as follows: “Some years ago, while attached to the Roosevelt Hospital, in New York city, after repeated experiments with various tests and anti-ferments, I became convinced of the practicability of making a solution of the sulphate of morphia, of the strength of Magendie’s, without the aid of acid, except salicylic, and that not as a solvent, but as a preventive of decomposition, making a solution that, when properly prepared, gave perfect satisfaction after years of use, never causing abscesses, as is frequently the case when the mineral acids are used, and when carried in the pocket for months being in as perfect condition for use as when freshly prepared.
“The following directions, if followed, will give the desired result:—
| Sulphate of morphia, | 256 | grains |
| Salicylic acid, | 8 | grains |
| Distilled water, | 16 | fluid ounces. |
“Heat the water in a porcelain capsule, over a spirit lamp, until the boiling point is reached; add the powders and stir with a glass rod, until they are dissolved. Filter through coarse filtering paper, while hot, and keep in a glass-stoppered bottle of green glass.”