The chemist and druggist, 15. September 1859

EXTRACTS. Disinfection or Sores.—I)rs. Demeux and Come have just communicated to the Academy of Sciences a discovery of the highest importance in surgery, and which lias been repeatedly tried in Professor Velpeau's wards of the Hopital de la Charite. It consists in the application of a compound, which not only absorbs pus, and destroys its foetid smell, but also dispenses with the necessity of employing lint. The prescription is as follows:—Take 100 parts of plaster of Paris finely powdered, coal tar from 1 to 3 parts, and mix in a mortar. Add olive oil quantum suff. to reduce the mixture to the consistence of ointment, and preserve it for use in a cbj.se vessel. This mixture is of a dark brown colour, and has a bituminous smell. The oil binds the powder without dissolving it, so that the compound retains its absorbing quality when placed in contact with a suppurating sore, and it never dries suffi- ciently to become inconvenient to the patient by its hardness, nor can it do any injury to the sore. The application may be immediate or mediate, according to the circumstances. If applied immediately to the sore it causes no pain, and has a detersive action favourable to cicatrisation. The advantages it offers maybe summed up as follows:—1. A gangrenous wound, emitting a foetid and abundant pus, is at once deprived of its bad smell; 2. After a twenty-four or thirty-six hours' application, the bandages of a bad sore exhale no more smell than if they had been applied to a common fracture; 3. A cancerous ulcer is immediately deprived of its fcetor; 4. The same is the case with ulcers in the legs; 5. Bandages and poultices charged with offensive pus are at once disinfected when brought into contact with the compound above described; 6. It also stops decomposition, keeps away insects, and pre- vents the generation of worms. Drs. Chevreul, Velpcau, and Cloquet have been appointed by the academy to report on this discovery.—Galignani. A SONNET UPON A SCENT. A Learned Chemist writcth to the Times, That Thames stink is innocuous—" mere ammonia/' That neither sulphuret recks from its slimes, Nor carburet. Oh, had that Chemist on'y a Lodging upon Thames-brink, (as for my crimes I have, I grieve to say) his brains were stonier, Steeled to all tests, save that sure test which climbs Into the nose, and I would bet a pony a- -gainst science upon smell. Ob, let these rhymes, At which I sweat, under my light Siphonia, (A Templar—one whom London smoke begrimes, And briefless prospects steep in mclanconia—) Proclaim (whate'er tests prove, howe'er Thwaites limes) Thames-mud ain't smelling-salts—pace the Times. The Knife and the Lancet.—A pork butcher, be it respectfully said, is so far in ad- vance of the medical knowledge of the age, inasmuch as he both kills and cures. Now, it is rare indeed that a doctor can achieve more than one of those delicate operations successfully at a time; at all events, there is no living proof of the two having ever been performed com- pletely to the patient's satisfaction.—Punch. A Substitute for Lint.—Mr. J. R. A. Douglas, formerly house surgeon, Middlesex Hospital, in a letter to the Lancet, July 23, recommends the following substitute for lint, which is in extensive use in the Parisian hospitals :—" I have Anglicised it by the name of ' pink,' as pinking is the process by which it is made. It is merely cheap cotton perforated by a common punch. The long-cloth is folded some fourteen times, and holes are driven through it with a hammer and a sixpenny punch on a piece of lead. The holes are about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and twice their breadth from each other. My firm having been for many years surgeons to Messrs. Curtis and Harvey's powder-mills, I have had opportunities of testing it in burns and other large suppurating surfaces. These being extremely sensitive, do not require the removal of the pink so frequently as lint or other applications, as the pus passing through the perforations is easily removed with a soft sponge, which cannot be done with other applications, nor will the highly vasc ular granulations in burns bear the sponge when unco- vered. I have found it very useful in gun-shot wounds, and in compound fractures, where, as a perforated bandage, it gives support without confining the discharge, which never accumu- lates under it; and when removed, the surface is covered with healthy lymph without pus. Mr. Ashbee, the intelligent manager of Messrs. Curtis's powder-mills, has promised to prepare some linen or cotton by their elaborate machinery, if possible ; in the meantime, the hospital patient, nearly convalescent, would be grateful for the occupation to relieve his monotony, and the cheapness of material and instruments makes it worthy of trial. Any ointment may be spread on it; ami where large pieces are used, it can be rcwashed. To Make Good Blue Ink'.—Mix six parts of Prussian blue (carefully powdered) with one part of oxalic acid and a little water, and when the mixture is complete, add rain water so as to reduce it to writing condition. A little gum-arabic must also be added to preven the ink running on the paper.