SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION TO MEDICAL PURPOSES.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 821, 12 September 1870, Page 6

SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION TO MEDICAL PURPOSES.

JUjong the recent applications of gflientiuG results to medical. purposes, few seem more promising than the use of artificial spray. . We have already seen how successfully ether spray has been used py Dr Bichardson, to pro duce insensibility of pain in surgical joperations-r-but the new method of dispensing liquids has a variety of other applications, of which medical men we doubt not will make extensive use—a process by which a minute quantity of any liquid may be made to serve all the purposes which the bathing or fomenting process hitherto in vogue subserved, would on this account alone be important. But as a matter of fact; the advantages of the use of the artificial spray have a much more extensive , range. The old fashioned lotions and fomentations were limited in their applications, besides causing a considerable amount of inconvenience to the patient. By the pew process, it will be possible to reach every part of a diseased surface without, in any way disturbing the sufferer. The eyes, nostrils, mouth, and throat —even the lungs if necessary—rcan be readily washed by a spray current. Indeed, though the application is strictly liquid, it has all the freedom of range that a true vapour would have. The spray disperse! breathes moisture upon the diseased surface, and that mixture may be loaded with any healing substances hitherto applied in lotions or fomentations. But there is one advantage which those who have had much to do with the sick room will not fail to appreciate. Hitherto throat affections have nearly always involved the use of gargles, The patient has had to use the inflamed parts, which his instinct tells him should be kept at rest as much as possible, to an extent causing scarcely less pain than the loud shoutjng of an upper note would. Then as the gargle becomes diluted with saliva he has continually to take fresh quantities into his mouth. In many cases the mere repetitions of the act. of spitting adds seriously to the distress of the patient. But bad as is the case of the adult, that of the infant patient is yet more serious ; and it is in this light that the new arrangement seems to present ..its most attractive aspect. Throat affections are among the most fruitful sources of infant mortality, pearly all of them admit of being beneficially treated by means of liquid appliotions. But children are seldom able to gargle. The imitative faculty js so strong in them that they will readily try to do what their nurse shows them in action. But the effort is usually unsuccessful, and it is always painful. The risk of their swallowing what was only meant for a gargle, would, in any case, prevent a doctor from suggesting the use of substances which, in other cases, he would not hesitate to recommend. All these in conveniences will be removed should the use of artificial spray become general. All that will be necessary will be that the patient should open his mouth ; and the quantity of liquid actually injected will be so small that a far higher degree of concentration will be available than in the case of any ordinary gargle. Those who suffer from throat affections will be grateful to the medical profession for the proposed change, but the gratitude of those who see a new means opened to save their little ones, or to relieve them from pain, will be yet warmer. Those only who have watched by the sick bed of an infant, and have seen the chances of recovery imperilled, or life itself sacrificed through the poor little patient's inability to understand or to do what is wanted, can alone appreciate to its full extent the value of the newly discovered process.