An Improvised Plastic Dressing: Oleum Ricini et Bolus Alba.

An Improvised Plastic Dressing: Oleum Ricini et Bolus Alba

A country practitioner often finds it inconvenient to keep everything on hand ready made for use, that he occasionally happens to need. A plastic dressing for inflammatory conditions, etc., commonly called "Denver mud," can be made with castor oil and finely powdered white clay, worked into a thick mass with the addition of a few drops of a flavoring oil to cover the odor of the castor oil. The oleum ricini has the relaxant and anti-inflammatory effect, and the bolus alba the absorbent effect of morbific and poisonous substances wherever applied. The mass referred to is nearly identical with the usual plastic dressings and as near as I can find it is the same. With me it has practically the same therapeutic value.

The best white clay can be obtained from any wholesale drug company, under the name of China clay, for 3 cents per pound, and any doctor can make his own "mud."

O. NOBELL, M. D.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.