TREATMENT OF BOILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 10

TREATMENT OF BOILS

MISTAKEN APPLICATION BREAD AND LINSEED. Boils are an ancient and familiar ill, falling alike upon hale and feeble, upon great and humble, coming sometimes singly, but more often in crops. A boil is the infection of a single hair follicle or root by a germ known as the staphyloccus. It starts as a small and rather sore pimple, which grows larger as infection breaks through the wall of the follicle and spreads into the tissues surrounding it, forming a hard, red, tender lump that goes far into the deeper layers of the skin. After a while the centre of this lump softens and liquefies, the boil breaks, pus and finally a core are discharged and the boil heals. The core of the boil is formed by the hair follicle and its surroundings dying and separating from the living tissue around it. This process is called sloughing, and the technical name for the core of a boil is the slough. The traditional unskilled treatment for boils is by poulticing, bread and linseed being the materials most com--monly used. It would be difficult to devise a method more unsuitable, for the warmth and moisture of a poultice offer a good climate foi' germs to flourish and make of the neighbouring skin a soft and sodden soil for their ready growth. A boil in its early stage—before softening has happened —should be dealt with gently and protected from harm—that is from handling, and from friction. A good method is to cover the boil and its surroundings for about an inch all round with adhesive strapping and to leave this in place until it is obvious that discharge is occurring. Another good practice is to apply a mixture of glycerine and magnesium sulphate and to cover with lint. Incision is rarely necessary, and need not be done unless pus is deeply imprisoned and softening slow to occur;: but, if done at all, it should Jpe deep! and wide. Once a boil is discharging freely all that is needful is to cover it with a .clean absorbent dressing of gauze and cottonwool and to bathe it often enough to prevent the discharge from caking at its exit. Attempts made to burst a boil or to hasten its discharge by squeezing it often drive the infection deeper and wider and a larger and more lasting boil ensues. Preventive Measures. More important than the treatment of an individual boil is to prevent the arrival of others. The staphyloccus is a normal and widespread inhabitant of the human skin, and as a rule lives there at peace with its host; but onceit has done harm by causing a boil it seems to seek to do further harm and cause more boils; and once an individual has suffered staphyloccal harm in the form of a boil his resistance to further staphyloccal invasion of his skin is apt to be impaired. So measures to prevent boils consist in attempts to aid and restore this resistance. The following measures are used with this aim: (1) The taking of vitamin B, one of the readiest foodstuffs that contain it being fresh brewers’ yeast. (2) The taking of certain medicinal remedies, such as diluted sulphuric acid, iron, and arsenic, and certain metals, such as tin or manganese in their colloidal (non-crystalline) form. (3) Staphyloccal vaccines, the use of which in the treatment of recurrent boils furnishes one of the best examples of the success of vaccine therapy.