No. VI
Take Mercurial Ointment (P) one ounce; Calomel (N) and Powder’d Precipitate (O) of each one drachm; Oil of Peppermint (U), one drachm; Spread this upon a rag, and apply it to the gangrenous part.
If a sphacelus has commenced, the skin turned livid, attended with a cadaverous fœture, and seems to the touch to be rotten, it must be scarified to the quick with the lancet, and then the above remedy applied. But if it has already reached the bone, (which a mortification soon will) and seems to make a rapid progress, all external remedies are of little avail, and nothing but amputating the limb can save life. But as that operation ought to be performed by a skilful surgeon, I shall therefore omit it here; only observe, that there are very few cases, but that this dreadful catastrophe may be prevented, if timely assistance is given.
To conclude this section, I think it requisite to observe, that a gangrene and sphacelus, or mortification, is far from being so often the case as many from the pain they undergo, are apt to persuade themselves. A common boil, whilst it is in an inflamed state, is sometimes so very painful as to put the patient in a fever, and will be excessively tender. But, notwithstanding, a suppuration is the result.
A gangrene and mortification is only to be dreaded, when a whole limb is inflamed, such as an arm, a leg, &c. When the inflammation is dreadful, that the blood can find no passage at all, but is obstructed on all sides, then the part must naturally die, and become cadaverous. The cause of this misfortune may be either a heavy contusion, a compound fracture, a gun-shot wound, or an internal malignity of the bone itself; and as a caution, I must also add, that pricking a tendon in bleeding may occasion this dreadful malady.
There is another kind of mortification which proceeds from a bad habit of body, a poorness of constitution, or when the whole mass of blood is corrupted by the scurvy. This shall be taken notice of in its proper place.
SECT. II.
Of Ulcerations
This is a part of surgery that many pretend to, but what very few really understand. There are however laws in the animal œconomy, which when they are violated, leads us to trace its many evil consequences.