In one case suppuration of the integuments took place in the forepart of the knee, and the patient was obliged to leave her situation and go to her friends at a distance, although every antiphlogistic means was tried for her relief.
In two other cases, after the application of twenty leeches and the administration of an emetic and purgative medicine, I applied the lunar caustic freely over the whole surface of the knee previously moistened with water. In a few hours the cuticle was raised and vesicated; I evacuated a viscid puriform fluid, and I directed the constant application of the cold poultice and lotion.
In a few days all inflammation subsided and the patients remained well.
These three cases having occurred to me at the same time, and being apparently equally severe, I was enabled to judge of the efficacy of this use of the caustic, and I can strongly recommend it to a future and further trial. Its application causes more pain than a blister, but not so much as to form an obstacle to its employment.
It may not be unimportant, here, to suggest the trial of the caustic in other cases of inflammation, in which a more than usually active local remedy is required.
5. Of Tinea Capitis, &c.
In this place I have only to observe that I have in some cases completely succeeded, in others completely failed, in the cure of tinea capitis, by the lunar caustic. As I have not hitherto distinguished these cases from each other; and as I could only offer conjectures on the subject, I think it best to leave it for future inquiry.
The same observation applies to some other cutaneous affections which I need not specify more particularly at the present.