Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain / by the late John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson.

  • Hilton, John, 1804-1878.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rest and pain : a course of lectures on the influence of mechanical and physiological rest in the treatment of accidents and surgical diseases, and the diagnostic value of pain / by the late John Hilton ; edited by W.H.A. Jacobson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    l^all Superficial Cervical Abscess. We are often troubled how to deal satisfactorily with the results of small superficial abscesses in the neck. Such open abscesses under the skin are mostly said to be scrofulous; but I suspect their persistence depends not unfrequently upon their close relation to the platysma myoides. I believe—and 1 am speaking here from ex- perience—that by placing a pad of cotton wool, twice as large as the area of the disease, over the part, and by fixing it there so as to keep the plat}sma myoides and all the surrounding parts at rest, many of those cases that seem to defy almost every kind of treatment may be suc- cessfully dealt with. I have had opportunities in very many such cases of observing the success of this treatment. Cases of Carbuncle, followed by Sloughing. We all know that it is not easy to manage successfuUj' the trea^tment of a patient who has had a large carbuncle on the back of the neck near the scalp, which, by destroy- iijg the subcutaneous areolar and fascial structures, has left large portions of loose overlapping skin, blue, dark- coloured, and congested, showing a very feeble power, and, in addition to this, exposed the trapezii muscles to view. Now I wish to show the therapeutical value of local rest in the treatment of such a case. Some years ago I saw the wife of a physician whose condition accurately resembled that which I have just delineated. She had been previously attended by a very eminent London surgeon. The case was not proceeding satisfactorily; there was no local evidence of repair; and the wound had remained stationary some time before my visit. On looking at the patient's neck, it appeared to me that there were two additional requisites in the treatment which might help the cure: one was to arrange some Lectures on Scrofulous Neck and Tlie Surgery of Scrofulous Glands, drawn attention to another means of curing obstinate cervical sinuses by rest, i.e., by dilating sinuses and thoroughly removing their lining of granulatif>n tissue, and completely extirpating relica of caseatiiig and decaying glands.—[Ed.] L