A practical essay on the use of the nitrate of silver in the treatment of inflammation, wounds, and ulcers / by John Higginbottom.

  • Higginbottom, John, 1788-1876.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical essay on the use of the nitrate of silver in the treatment of inflammation, wounds, and ulcers / by John Higginbottom. 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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    being thought a caustic, a destructive agent, and being called Lunar Caustic, affording the most strik- ing instance of the influence of a term or of a classification upon the human raind. The nitrate of silver and the hydrate of potassa (as indeed all caustics) are as the poles to each other—the ^Ysi preserves, the second desirous. The first induces cicatrization; the second ulceration. It is rather singular that the caustic character of the nitrate of silver has been subjected to legal investigation. In the year 1851, Mr. Christopher Rogerson, sur- geon, of Blackburn, Lancashire, anticipated an assize trial as a felon, for having, as was supposed, indelibly branded a boy of the name of Wood with the mark B with the nitrate of silver. This was intended as a punishment by Mr. E., for ringing at his door-bell, and then running away. Dr. J gave evidence for the complainant, and alleged that the imprint of the B will remain after the black mark has disappeared. A surgeon also stated that it might remain a year. This allegation was based on the opinion that the nitrate of silver is a caustic, and a corrosive substance. At the examination, Mr. Boger- son brought forward my published evidence that the nitrate of silver is not a caustic, and that after its application no permanent mark ever remained on the skin. Mr. Eogerson congratulated me on my researches as to the nitrate of silver, and on having saved a brother