Thuja Again.

Selected writings of A. Jackson Howe.

Perhaps the question, "What was Dr. Howe's method of treating hydrocele with Thuja?" is oftener asked of us than any other concerning Professor Howe's surgical procedures. In this selection is the answer. No simple surgical method of cure by injection ever aroused more interest than this one. It is still used by many surgeons in the same manner and for the same purposes as are here advised by Dr. Howe. See also "Thuja for Anal Prolapsion" and the "Treatment of Naevus."—Ed. Gleaner.

THUJA AGAIN.—Although I have published the method of employing Thuja in the treatment of hydrocele, I am still requested almost every day to tell a correspondent just how to execute the plan, what strength to employ, etc. Well, I presume the circumstances are as follows: The doctor who has no case of hydrocele to treat pays little attention to the matter till a patient presents himself for treatment; then, instead of looking up the published account in the JOURNAL, he writes for information, and sometimes forgets to inclose a postage stamp.

Well, here it is again: In an ounce of warm water pour a drachm of Lloyd's Thuja. Mix by drawing up a quantity in a syringe, and forcing it back with the descent of the piston. Then draw up about two drachms of the dilute mixture in the barrel of the syringe, to be ready for use. Send a large exploring needle into the sac of the tunica vaginalis testis, and let the fluid escape. Now, before withdrawing the needle, place the nozzle of the loaded syringe into the needle's open mouth, and with a plunge of the syringe's piston send the diluted Thuja into the cavity recently distended with serum. Then, to make the liquid enter every crevice in the sac of the hydrocele, the fingers pinch and knead the scrotum quite vigorously. The hollow needle is then withdrawn, and the provoked pain is considerable for a half hour or so. The patient then goes about his business, and no additional treatment is required. For a day or two there is some swelling of the scrotum, making it appear that there has been a re-accumulation of serum, yet this passes off in a week, and the disease is radically cured.—HOWE, Eclectic Medical Journal, 1892.

The Biographies of King, Howe, and Scudder, 1912, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M. D.