A freezing mixture which will reduce the temperature to 4° is made by
mixing equal parts of salt and pounded ice. The ice and salt should be
stirred together very quickly and applied at once to the part to be
frozen. Two parts of dry snow and one of salt make an equally good
mixture. Freezing is more conveniently performed by the rapid
evaporation of ether or rhigoline.
Freezing is a useful process in numerous cases. By its use,
excrescences—as warts, wens, and polypi—fibrous tumors, and even
malignant tumors, as cancer, may be successfully removed. Small cancers
may sometimes be cured by repeated and long-continued freezing. Their
growth may certainly be impeded by this means. Felons, if treated early
in their course, may be cured by two or three freezings.
For freezing a felon, place the finger in a mixture ice and salt, or
surround it with cotton, saturate the cotton with ether or rhigoline,
and blow it very strongly with a pair of bellows. This is a very good
method when an apparatus for producing a fine spray is not at hand. The
latter instrument facilitates the freezing very much if used with the
bellows.
No harm results from repeated freezing if proper care is used in thawing
the frozen parts. They should be kept immersed in cool water, or covered
with cloths kept cool by frequent wetting with cold water, until the
natural feeling is restored.
The application of ice is found extremely serviceable in many
inflammatory diseases, and in some nervous affections. In inflammation
of the brain, the ice cap is of inestimable value. Ice applied to the
spine will check the convulsive spasms of chorea and hysteria when other
remedies fail. In putrid sore throat, or malignant diphtheria, ice is a
sovereign remedy. It should be applied to the neck externally, and held
in small bits in the mouth. Small bits swallowed will sometimes relieve
the pains of gastralgia.
Rubber bags are very convenient for applying ice or iced water; but
their place can be very well supplied by dried bladders filled with
pounded ice. The ice cap is a double head cap stuffed with pounded ice.
Some physicians recommend the application of ice to the spine in cases
of congestive chill and paralysis, and in inflammation of the stomach,
kidneys, uterus, and other internal organs. The real worth of such
applications in these cases has yet to be determined by careful and
repeated observations. We would not recommend an unskillful person to
attempt to relieve a violent ague chill by rubbing ice on the patient’s
back, and we have some fears that a very skillful operator would hardly
succeed to his entire satisfaction and that of the patient.
The snow bath, applied by rubbing the part vigorously with snow, is a
useful application for restoring the circulation to frosted parts. In
cases of extreme chilling or absolute freezing, there is perhaps no
better remedy. Powdered ice may be used when snow cannot be readily
procured.