stic is applied. In cases of recent wounds unattended by
inflammation, it may be applied freely; but when inflammation has come
on, too severe an application of the caustic induces vesication of the
surrounding skin, and the edges of the eschar may in this manner also
be loosened and removed. If every part is touched, a slight
application of the caustic is generally sufficient.

The importance of avoiding all causes which might detach the edges of
the eschar will be apprehended by the following interesting
observation, which I have been enabled to deduce from very extensive
trials of the caustic; it is, that, in every instance in which the
eschar remains adherent from the first application, the wound or ulcer
over which it is formed, invariably heals.

Not only the cause just mentioned, but every other by which the eschar
might be disturbed, must, therefore, be carefully avoided; and
especially, as the eschar begins to separate from the healed edges of
the sore, it should be carefully removed by a pair of scissors.

To the surface of the wound the eschar supplies a complete protection
and defence, and allows the healing process to go on underneath
uninterruptedly and undisturbed. It renders all applications, such as
plasters, totally unnecessary, as well as the repeated dressings to
which recourse is usually had in such cases; and it at once removes
the soreness necessarily attendant on an ulcerated surface being
exposed to the open air. In many cases too, in which the patients are
usually rendered incapable of following their wonted avocations, this
mode of treatment saves them from an inconvenience, which is, to some,
of no trifling nature.

It has already been stated how important it is that the eschar should
be preserved adherent. To secure this still more effectually, I have
found it of great utility to protect it by a portion of gold-beater's
skin. The skin surrounding the wound is simply moistened with a drop
of water, and the gold-beater's skin is then to be applied over it and
over the eschar, to which it soon adheres firmly, but from which it
may be removed at any time, by again moistening it for a moment with
water; the same bit of gold-beater's skin admits of being again and
again reapplied in the same manner.

The other circumstances which render the eschar unadherent will be
mentioned hereafter. In the mean time the fact stated p. 6, will
sufficiently establish the propriety of treating distinctly of