LETTER FROM LONDON

Abstract

only allows the pus to run off but it also acts as a siphon and facili¬ tates the evacuation of the pus from the wound. When it is carefully placed the wound is covered, and an antiseptic dressing is made in order to exclude the air. M. Abadie, the well known oculist, read a paper on " Microbes and Diathesis." The author believes that diathesis has only a secondary influence, and that microbes are the important factors in the local complications attending wounds. He recommended that surgeons not only disinfect wounds, but the atmosphere also; an important precaution in the treatment of wounds, and not sufficiently estimated. M. Cauchois chose for the subject of his com¬ munication what may be considered as the obsolete question of " Erysipelas before and after the Adoption of Antiseptic Method." His field of study was the Hotel Dieu, at Rouen, and there, as elsewhere, the investigation proved the efficacy of the antiseptic treatment. M. Cauchois never isolated his patients, but depended on anti¬ septic measures to prevent propagation. Communications on the treatment of cold abscesses were read by three different authors. M. Cazin, of Boulogne, has treated them by ex¬ tirpation since 1874; he dissects them out. The cicatrix is scarcely apparent, and is most often linear. The cure is generally early, if the anti¬ septic method be adopted. M. Bouilly has studied sixty-five cases of cold abscesses. He agrees with M. Cazen and M. Sannelongue, that cold abscesses are tuberculous in character; and he believes that by destroying this tuberculous area certain cure may be obtained. But if the lungs or viscera are tuberculous success is doubtful. M. Pozzi presented a patient to the meeting as evidence of his successful method in treating cold abscesses. The patient was a woman thirtyeight years of age ; when a child she was scrofulous. Her lungs were slightly affected ; two years ago a large abscess formed on her left thigh, and this was quickly followed by another on her elbow, and one on the thorax. The general condition was very bad. M. Pozzi freely opened the abscesses and removed the fungous growth; he cauterized the attainable surface with the thermo-cautery, and the unat¬ tainable with the zinc chloride. Antiseptic and iodoform dressings were applied; partial cicatri¬ zation followed quickly, but part of the wound continued unhealed. Three months afterward incisions were made wherever there was pus. Scraping was again resorted to, and cauterization by the thermo-cautery and zinc chloride. M. Pozzi described another case of a patient, sixtytwo years of age, who was also cured of several cold abscesses by the same treatment. M. J. Bceckel, the eminent surgeon of Strasburg, in a paper on " Ossifluent Abscesses," also known