Wounds, Part 2

Papers on Health
by John Kirk

(Page 21 of 21)

Wounds, Syringing - Very great good can often be done by a little careful syringing of internal wounds. Take, as an illustration, a case of a kind we have often seen. It is that of a young patient with a wound on the lower part of the leg, a good long way below the knee. This wound will run in spite of all that has been done to dry it up. The opening in it is very small, and one would think it ought to be easily cured, but it is not so. The truth is that this wound is from two to three inches distant from where the real sore is situated in the limb. The wound is well down towards the ankle; the real sore is well up towards the knee. There is a corroding matter generated in the internal sore, and that runs down under the skin, and keeps cutting its way out at the wound.

Until this is rectified, there will be no successful healing. Ointments that might do well enough on a small external sore have no effect in this case. The real sore, however, is easily reached and cured by the right use of a small pointed syringe. The kind most easily procured is made of glass, and costs about sixpence. Choose one that has a small smooth point, which can be easily inserted into the hole in the wound. This should be done without causing any pain. The point of the syringe should be dipped in hot water till it is as near as possible to blood heat: that is, it should neither be hotter nor colder than the skin it has to touch. If you are sufficiently careful on this point, all else will be comparatively easy.

Before you actually try to insert the syringe, observe in what direction the wound is likely to be extended under the skin. It will probably be upwards - almost certainly it will be so, as the waste matter, by its weight, tends to fall down. The sore at the top insertion of a muscle near the knee will send its matter down the leg, perhaps near to the ankle. Fill the syringe with warm water only, as near blood heat as you can have it. When you have got the point of the syringe even a very little way into the wound, you can inject a little water, and in doing this you will probably learn more nearly where the actual sore is to be found. The water will probably come out as fast as you send it in, but it may not come till a good quantity has gone in. Now, as you fill your syringe a second time with water at the same degree of heat, you will add a single drop of strong acetic acid, or twelve drops of white vinegar to a teacupful. You must be careful that this is not exceeded at this stage, or you will cause great pain.

Moreover, you do no good to the sore by making the acid so strong as to cause suffering. If it is only just so strong as to cause a comfortable feeling of warmth, it will be all right for its curative purpose. Even very weak acid combines with the irritating waste matter that is keeping the sore diseased, and produces the desired healing effect. You have only to add one drop after another of the acid to your full teacupful of warm water, till the feeling produced by the syringing is all that could be desired. In the case of the limb that we refer to, a sensible mother used the syringe and the acid so skillfully as to heal the internal sore in a very short time, and thus the external wound quickly disappeared. Of course, if the wound is so very deep that the acid cannot be got up to cleanse it thoroughly, surgical aid should be sought.

It may be well, however, to take another case or two for further illustration. Here, then, is a decayed tooth extracted, but the part from which it is taken does not heal, as is usual. The hole in the gum does not close, and a discharge of offensive humour flows from it constantly. The bone of the upper jaw is evidently wasting, and the decay has extended somehow considerably up the side of the nose. The hole, however, is so small, that the usual glass syringe cannot enter it. We got an exceedingly small instrument, used for the injection of morphine under the skin. The point of this syringe is a needle with a point that is hollow nearly to the very end. When this point was broken off, the hollow part was so small that it entered the hole in the gum, and so it was easy to inject the weak acid up to the bottom of the sore, which had come to be only a little under the eye. About an inch and a half of hollow had to be washed out with the acid. But in a very short time all discharge ceased, and the cure was perfect. Both of these cases are comparatively simple, but they show clearly the great value of this use of acetic acid.

Carbolic acid is much more commonly used for such a purpose. It has the drawback of being liable itself to melt away the healthy tissue, and to make a wound larger. Acetic acid never does this, and so heals more quickly and certainly.

We might take a much more difficult case. It was that of an abscess and bad sore in the lower bowels. It was supposed to be necessary to perform a very dangerous operation in order to try to cure this - not much hope was held out of its being possible really to cure. It was, however, quite possible to reach the sore by the injection of acetic acid. The sufferer was directed to have this done regularly. In a very short time there was a complete cure. In such a case all that is wanted is an ordinary India-rubber enema. A much larger quantity of water is required, but about the same strength of acid. First of all, as much acidulated water as can be taken up with comfort is injected: after a minute or so this is passed off. Then another is used in the same way, and passed off also. A third syringing may be employed, when about half-a-teacupful is taken and retained. If the acid gives no comfortable feeling of warmth it needs to be strengthened till it does so, but not so that it produces any pain. The operation really well done is not in the least painful, but, on the contrary, rather comfortable.

There is still one syringing which we may notice - that of suppurating ears. If an ear is discharging from some internal sore, nothing is more important than syringing with acetic acid, but it must be done with very peculiar care. The water used should be as nearly as possible of exact blood heat, and the acetic acid of the exact strength at which it will give a fine comfortable feeling in the ear. It must neither feel as if it were a mere wetting of the ear, nor that it gives the least pain. The syringe, too, must be used gently, so as not to force the water strongly against the internal parts that are so tender. It is a soaking operation rather than a forcible urging of the water into the ear which is wanted. If this is nicely done, say twice a day, the acid will reach the sore, and we may confidently look for a cure. Even when the bones are wasting, as we have seen in the case of the upper jaw, if this acid can be really brought to bear upon the sore, it will be cleansed and healed. In this simple way we have seen many, both old and young, delivered from sore trial, and made to enjoy life and health again.

Printed by Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport. 1904.