Ingrowing Toe-Nails

This affection is too well known to need any description, and we will simply give two methods of treatment that have been very successfully used in our practice. The first is known as the liquor ferri sesquichlor. treatment, and the method of using, as follows:

After disinfecting the wound with corrosive mercury apply a few drops of the liquor ferri sesquichlor., after lifting the nail somewhat. Allow this to dry. On the second and third days, the same process is repeated. Then with delicate forceps try to remove the hard crust that has formed. The slight bleeding that ensues is immediately stopped by a fresh application of the liquor. In a few days more the same process of ablation is again practised. After a few applications, thus carried out, the nail rots so that it can be removed with the aid of the scissors or a dull knife without causing any pain. To prevent relapses, it is well to insert fine layers of cork under the edges of the new nail as it grows forward.


The second plan of treatment is preferable in some cases. After cleaning the diseased nail in a soap-bath and having dried it thoroughly, the whole nail is smoothly enveloped with tin-foil. A thin strip of tin-foil is pressed in on the side where the nail has grown in, or tries to grow in. These strips are kept in their place by a thin layer of yellow wax, so that in all places where the nail touches the flesh some tin-foil lies between them. Tinfoil acts not only mechanically, but the constant contact of these moist and granulating spots with the metallic foil dries up the affected places in a few weeks and causes a more healthy state in the morbid nail. It is a great gain for laboring people that they are thus able to follow their usual avocations, and it is only necessary to renew the dressing three times during the first two weeks. The feet must not be bathed during that time, but may be cleansed with dry wheat bran.