EXCORIATION, or fretting of the skin, is a complaint sometimes arising from want of due attention to infants, or in persons unaccustomed to ride on horseback, or those who are unfortunately bed-ridden.
If the excoriation be only of a superficial kind, the application of a little hot flour, or covering the part affected with fine silken oil-cloth, will generally heal it in a fews days: but, if these simple means do not succeed, an ointment consisting of one ounce of the finest mutton-suct, and a dozen drops of the common oil of turpentine, graly added while the former is melting, has generally been found of service.
In those cases, however, where the true skin is affected, so that the excoriation is attended with considerable pain, it will be useful immediately to apply the plant called self-heal (prunella vulgaris), finely pounded in a marble mortar, with the addition of a few grains of alum. Thus, the inflammation of the contiguous parts may be prevented; but, if this have already taken place, it should be previously reduced by a timely application of emollient Poultices, to which we refer.