Page:A Treatise on the Diseases of the Bones.djvu/113

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OF BONE.
97

plication, and the most efficacious in their operation.

In employing blisters, care should be taken to keep up a continued irritation on that part of the skin immediately over the joint, and a little in front of the great trochanter. This object can only be accomplished by a frequent succession of them. The tartar emetic ointment is a remedy nearly similar in its operation to a blister, and is, on the whole, more manageable. It must be employed, however, with great caution, as the particles of the antimonial salt are very slowly absorbed. Care should therefore be taken, after having, by friction with a piece of flannel, promoted the action of this application, to wipe away the remainder of the ointment which adheres to the surface, — as, on drying, the antimonial powder is apt, on the slightest motion of the bed-clothes, to be brought into contact with other parts of the body, and I have seen the most disagreeable consequences result from inattention to this circumstance. The moxa is liable to fewer objections than either of the preceding applications; its operation may be regulated with greater certainty, and it has no tendency to affect the stomach or